Michael Hendrick and Dubravka Musovic shown as the feuding couple Herod and Herodias.
After the ambitious and therefore controversial Parsifal, the Wuppertal audience celebrated the new “Salome” with unanimous applause. The audience not only got their money’s worth in terms of the musical implementation, the directing team also received a lot of applause at the premiere. Unlike the director of the Wuppertal Parsifal, Thilo Reinhard, in his Berlin “Salome”, Michiel Dijkema emphasized the given arc of tension and placed particular emphasis on precise and comprehensible character management, but also included new perspectives in detail.
When the curtain opens, the stage appears in an overwhelming blue, with the moon above to the right. At the bottom left there is a black hole with considerable depth and difficult entry. There are also two staircases, one of which leads over a footbridge into the ballroom. Everything happens in this atmosphere.
The fact that Captain Narraboth and the page are a couple is emphasized from the beginning, which makes Narraboth’s attraction to Salome seem all the stronger, as she obviously knows about his infatuation and also exploits it through physical contact. In the same way, she also harasses the prophet, who allows this to happen several times and probably enjoys it, before he then comes to his senses again and tears himself away from her almost violently. The two soldiers are helpless in this scene and don’t know whether they should intervene; On the one hand they fear the strength of Jokanaan, and on the other hand the erotic aggressiveness of Salome.
Salome is of little interest in Narraboth’s suicide; After Jokanaan rejects her and returns to his prison, she is not only disappointed but desperate. At the same time, she seems to make a leap in development from a young girl playing with love, who got everything else she wanted, to a rejected woman. She probably only came up with the idea of having Jokanaan’s head cut off in order to reach him when she touched the blood of the dead Narraboth.
This also changes her relationship with her stepfather Herod, whose advances she rejects with disgust for a long time. Only when he wants to fulfill her wish for her dance and swears an oath to it does her behavior change immediately and consistently, and no one understands why she does this. This doesn’t become clear even during the dance. For this, the director enlisted the help of choreographer Matthew Tusa. Although the dance seems a bit static at the beginning, it becomes incredibly lively as it progresses because Salome involves everyone present: first the soldiers, then the younger of the Nazarenes admiring Jesus, who is only saved from this sinful act by his older companion, before he joins in himself and is particularly fond of being touched by Salome because his hair is particularly similar to Jokanaan’s. The five Jews, whose grotesque argument before the dance was also beautifully choreographed, and the other festival guests are also made to dance by Salome, who finally puts Jokanaan’s remaining cloak over her shoulders. Only Herodias doesn’t take part, doesn’t yet understand what her daughter wants and interprets her behavior as defecting to her husband. But everyone’s horror – except Herodias – couldn’t be greater when Salome announces her true intentions. Herodias then immediately understands this and, after the execution, drinks some of Jokanaan’s blood and smears it on the muscular executioner’s chest.
Her relationship with Herod is also clearly emphasized: they only stick together in moments of fear, otherwise they are at odds to the point of physical violence. The ending is surprising and not entirely unproblematic. While a red neon strip forms like a warning sign on the back wall, a huge spotlight is suddenly brought onto the completely dark stage, which also shines into the audience and shows Salome’s execution in a split second. This seems a bit anachronistic to me, especially since most of the costumes (Tatjana Ivchina) refer to the time of the actual event and the newer costumes of some of the festival guests cannot quite meet the claim of timelessness.
The orchestra followed the evening’s conductor, Ari Rasilainen, precisely; the musicians obviously enjoyed the collaboration in the rehearsal phase. Only at the beginning of the Salome performance did the singer and orchestra have to adjust their volume to one another. But that happened very quickly and almost imperceptibly, and after that the collaboration worked excellently; Some showed that the singers felt carried and supported by the orchestra by thanking the orchestra at the first applause.
Cristina Baggio proved to be equal to her difficult task in every respect as an expressive singer, actress and dancer. Michael Hendrick and Dubravka Musovic shone as the feuding couple Herod and Herodias. Thomas Gazheli as Jochanaan, who had already impressed the audience with his voluminous voice in the matinée event and previously as Amfortas, once again filled the entire opera house, even when he was not on stage. Emilio Pons as Narraboth and the other actors in the smaller role also fulfilled their roles well, both in terms of singing and acting.
Because not only a new opera director but also a new GMD is currently being sought to succeed Kamioka, in addition to Ari Rasilainen, who was also responsible for the production, five other candidates will each conduct one of the five performances that follow the premiere: On April 19th . Johannes Pell, on April 26th Lutz Rademacher, on May 8th Ivan Törzs, May 17th Aleksandar Markovic and on May 30th. Kwame Ryan. It will be interesting to see whether one of them will win the race.
http://www.deianira.de/musik/oper-operette/
Fritz Gerwinn
Deianira das Kulturportal