Amazon. com: Customer Reviews: Richard Strauss. Others have praised this Covent Garden Salome for its dramatic impact, and with good cause. The direcotr, Luc Bondy, has translated the opera into tortured terms that the painter Egon Schiele would recognize; the sexuality is masochistic, frenzied, and self- destructive. John the Baptist is no solemn stick of wood - - Bryn Terfel makes him as agonized and writhing as Salome herself. But the brunt of the Expressionist labor falls on the cat- like Malfitano, whose descent into madness is neither campy nor stagey. She's a great actress, and she adapts to the stylized movements straight out of Nosferatu with total conviction. Only the opening scene is weak, since her girlish figure can't completely disguise that she is considerably too old to be the Judean princess.)On the musical side, I'm willing to forgive a lot.
'Salome' opera by Richard Strauss libretto by H.Lachmann, translation from 'Salome' by O.Wilde Actors: Catherine Malfitano, Bryn Terfel The Royal Opera. Catherine Malfitano, Bryn Terfel, Anja Silja and Kenneth Riegel are featured singers in Strauss' opera. Christoph von Dohnanyi conducts the Royal Opera House. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Richard Strauss - Salome / Dohnanyi, Malfitano, Terfel, Royal Opera House Covent Garden at Amazon.com. Read.
. 5/13/2003 Catherine Malfitano (Salome) Bryn Terfel. Anja Silja (Herodias) The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Salome, Op. 54 by Richard Strauss.
Terfel is magnificent and dominates the stage with sheer vocal prowess. He may look like a truck driver wrapped in a bath sheet, but all doubts disappear when he turns on the vocal charisma. Malfitano works from the opposite direction. Her voice, let's face it, is completely inadequate to the role except in terms of daring and stamina. She attacks every note fearlessly, even though her voice lacks the gleam, heft, and seductiveness that the role requires (as a result, the accompanying CD set from Decca, made with the Vienna Phil., cruelly exposed her vocal shortcomings). Without her petite frame and superb acting abilities, Malfitano wouldn't stand a chance. As the odious Herod and Herodias, Kenneth Riegel and Anja Silja (aka Mrs.
Malfitano/Terfel/Silja/Riegel Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Christoph von Dohnányi Directed by Luc Bondy.
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949) Salome (1905) Catherine Malfitano. Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Christoph von Dohnányi. Terfel manages to. . Terfel, Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Catherine Malfitano is a flawed but potent Salome. [Richard, Strauss]. Search - Richard Strauss - Salome / Dohnanyi, Malfitano, Terfel, Royal Opera House Covent Garden on DVD.
Dohnanyi) are reliable, hammy stage veterans. As for the conducting, Dohnanyi makes the Covent Garden orchestra play like gods - - he has always been strong in the opera pit - - but he draws back during the orgasmic outcries of Salome, in both the first and last scene. I imagine part of his reticence was an attempt to make things easier for Malfitano, but we the listeners are the losers. With all these musical reservations, I sitll give five stars because of Terfel and the utterly convincing stage direction. This was one of the most gripping opera DVDs I've seen.