Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Salome, Music Drama in One Act, Op. 54 TRV 215 (1903-05)
Salome: Malin Byström (soprano), Herodias: Katarina Dalayman (soprano), Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Judea: Gerhard Siegel (tenor), Jochanaan: Johan Reuter (bass-baritone)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner
rec. live, 14 August 2022, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK
German libretto & English translation
Chandos CHSA5356(2) SACD [2 discs: 99]
Recorded at the Edinburgh International Festival following extensive rehearsals and semi-staged performances in Bergen, this live performance has only just been released nearly three years later – and in all honesty I cannot say it was worth the wait. I am devoted to this opera and produced a survey of in 2019; perhaps I am guilty of holding performers to unreasonably high standards but I must speak – or rather write – as I find.
My first impressions were far from good, as the recorded volume level here is low and needs boosting, Hanna Hipp as the Page has a horrible wobble, Bror Magnus Tødenes’s tenor is plaintive and undistinguished, the two basses singing the Soldiers are growly and I could barely hear Johan Reuter’s Jochanaan – and when I could, I could only make unfavourable comparisons between his thin tone and celebrated predecessors such as Eberhard Wächter and José van Dam, who are so much more virile and glamorous of timbre. He is too distantly placed in the sonic landscape but in any case, his low notes are inaudible and his voice spreads uncomfortably, marring any steadiness of line. Malin Byström’s Salome, too, is gusty, her top notes pulse and both her middle voice and low notes are weak. Virtually every singer is afflicted by an excess of oscillation in their vibrato and no voice has the kind of resonance and sheen which makes the listener sit up. The exchanges between Salome and Jochanaan are devoid of sexual frisson because the voices so lack allure. Quite often, too, having turned up the volume, the listener might find the voices drowned out by the orchestra, not because Gardner isn’t attentive to dynamics but because the singers lack power; for example, Jochanaan’s climactic “Du bist verflucht” is completely inaudible under the orchestral blare. It doesn’t help that the conductor sometimes vocally supplements them.
Gerhard Siegel as Herod, channelling Mime, and Katarina Dalayman as Herodias are adequate but – no prizes for guessing my next complaint – both have a nasty wobble and cannot erase memories of far more chilling and vocally accomplished exponents of those two great character roles. There are some really uningratiating voices among the Jews and Nazarenes – groaners and nasal shouters.
The orchestral playing is very good – obviously meticulously rehearsed and Gardner ensures that individual instrumental details emerge clearly but I find his conducting often lacks the drive and tension we get from Karajan and Solti. The orchestral passage, concluding track 9, before Herod’s first entrance, is very loud and generates some real excitement but the damage has been done.
The booklet contains a synopsis, stimulating notes, biographies, a photo of “Malin Byström, having sung Salome, recieving (sic – tsk, tsk) an ovation” and, most importantly a full German libretto with an English translation – but I cannot advise the acquisition of this set. I will not go on; this is a thoroughly disappointing issue and one of the worst opera recordings to have come my way in recent years. It does no credit to Chandos’ generally admirable output. Stick to Solti, Karajan (live and studio), Georges Sébastian live in 1965 or Schønwandt for a truly thrilling experience.
Ralph Moore
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Other cast
Narraboth, a young Syrian, Captain of the Guard: Bror Magnus Tødenes (tenor)
Herodias’s Page: Hanna Hipp (mezzo-soprano)
First Jew: Michael Müller-Kasztelan (tenor)
Second Jew: Petter Moen (tenor)
Third Jew: John Michael Wrensted Olsen (tenor)
Fourth Jew: James Kryshak (tenor)
Fifth Jew: Callum Thorpe (bass)
First Nazarene: Clive Bailey (bass)
Second Nazarene: James Stephen Ley (tenor)
First Soldier: Igor Bakan (baritone)
Second Soldier: James Platt (bass)
A Cappadocian: James Berry (baritone)
A Slave: Rita Therese Ziem (mezzo-soprano)
