salome (met) 9/23/2008
I was there in the house and it was a good night. I still think that Mattila and the production were fresher in 2004 with a wider range of colors and dynamics. However, she didn’t sound frayed or at the end of her rope. Some of the louder high notes can get a blanched quality but they were dead on pitch and held for a good while with no wavering. She looks good but definitely a woman of a certain age and the girlish, kittenish business looks calculated now. Its a well kept body but definitely spreading a bit in places.  Supposedly Mattila was the one suppressing the 2004 taping since she disapproved of some of Flimm‘s choices (Salome being drunk was one). Well she was still doing some drinking (perhaps less this time) and really there weren’t that many changes from the last time that were crucial. The Dance of the Seven Veils is like an outtake from the Showgirls pole dance scene. I don’t think that kind of obvious tackiness was what Strauss had in mind. They need to put out the 2004 filming which is really superior on DVD and bypass Mattila’s objection. However, Gelb will probably want his product, his HD filming on the market so that will never see the light of day like the Ariadne with Voigt and the Wozzeck with Struckmann and Dalayman.
Joe Kaiser sounded fine and looked like he took off some pounds from last season. German suits him better than French to my ears. Begley and Komlosi were good as the Herods. Big letdown: Juha Usitalo – ordinary timbre, hollow small tone – when he was amplified in the cistern he wasn’t impressive and he was definitely underwhelming when he emerged. Fat man with little stage charisma – basically made a hole on the stage. Morris Robinson came out as the first Nazarene and that sounded like the voice of God.
BTW: I am coming to the conclusion that there is less to “Salome” than meets the eye. It all is very effect driven without great profundity underneath and all the characters are basically monsters or concepts without a core of humanity underneath. I like Elektra so much better. Elektra seems to get better every time I see it whereas I really find Salome silly and meretricious in some ways. — Gualtier Maldè
Kashania – you are spot on about Nilsson’s Elektra; I love it. I have no problem with the bits of pitch that go off ’cause she knows her way around the part. The stamina is amazing and it is a unique take on the role. Which I think was Marton’s weak link – a formidable instrument and huge commitment to the task in hand, but often the words just get lost and the tone hardens, combining so much that is great with so much that is often frustrating in terms of dramatic delivery. And I wouldn’t be without either!
Thanks Marshie for your insights in to the lost Hildegard years; I knew she had been traumatised by the Met incident, but wasn’t aware of the extent. I thought that the voice was going through the process of wear and tear because of singing the more strenuous roles quite a while before that Gotterdammerung – for instance, the difference between the Munich Rings in 87 then 89 is quite marked.
Kashania, to me it is dire. Nilsson is an artist I admire, but not one I have affection for. It might well be very good for a lady at 62 years of age, but I would rather it was just very good. And it isn’t just the intonation that marrs the singing, the middle is sounding vapid, and it is also the fact that many of the high notes don’t vibrate, and in my book, a high note which isn’t vibrating is a scream. I’ll take a scream from Callas, Jones, Rysanek, Behrens, but not an artist like Nilsson who for me was about great singing and adequate interpretation. When the singing isn’t great anymore, it doesn’t leave enough to recommend it, in my opinion. I’m sure people who saw Nilsson live would feel very differently about the whole thing, or people who have developed the kind of affection for her that I have for Callas and Jones, but I’m afraid I was very surprised at how bad Nilsson sounded before she retired.
I have no strong wish to bash Nilsson, but if you are going to correct me in no uncertain terms, I am going to tell you in no uncertain terms why I don’t agree.
I must have missed all this, and it’s fascinating. Could hardly believe the bit about the possibility of a Bergman Elektra – do you think he would have been persuaded by an artist of HB’s calibre had he not wanted to leave Sweden? Yes, indeed, it would have been something.
Well, I think I’ve mentioned this earlier, but I did for the one and only time catch Birgit at 62, Proms bits – the Strauss songs were pretty dire and for the Isolde Liebestod she, as Edward Greenfield tactfully put it, ‘warmed up’ to the first note after the Prelude. But ‘Barak, mein Mann’ was overwhelming and touching, and the encore ‘Hoyotoho’ when she ran off the Albert Hall platform brandishing an invisible spear rightly brought the house down – and the notes were all there for that.