Salome [Blu-ray]

Interesting and musically powered production
There's initially a sense of dislocation then when you view director Nikolaus Lehnhoff's 2011 production of Salome for Baden-Baden, as it has few of the superficial visual reference points that you would normally associate with its biblical Judean setting, and little even of the stylised imagery of moonlight nights and shadows of death suggested by a text derived from Oscar Wilde's beautifully decadent overwrought imagery. This version of Salome however is far from a straightforward biblical tale, but rather an expression of dark sexual pathology, of the fulfilment of dangerous desires, of obsession and lust, a lurid study of the power that those perverse drives confer on both the object and the subject of those desires and how it differentiates men and women.

The fractured, slightly titled landscape here in Salome then suggests a psychological imbalance, while the contrasts that are expressed in the music and the characters are reflected in the textures of the walls and...

disappointing
Oh dear. Being an admirer of both Nikolaus Lehnhoff and Angela Denoke, I had very high hopes for this version of Salome. Alas, I find it falls short.

The set is well described in the review by Keris Nine. It is indeed dislocating, and physically indicative of a world going to seed. But, like the interpretation of the role of Salome, it goes too far. A more settled mis-en scene would be better able to allow the events of the drama to be highlighted.

When Oscar Wilde wrote the play, he was infatuated with Bozy, Lord Alfred Douglas-- the relationshio that led to his trial and imprisonment. It is likely that his infatuation (obsession) was worked out in his play which Strauss set to music pretty well unchanged. So, it is a work dealing with obsessions. But one can be obsessed without being deranged. And this is where this production fails.

Salome is the central character. She becomes obsessed with Jakonaan. To take the two best DVD's I have...

to day SALOME
Charming SALOME with DENOKE, even if her voice does not render perfectly all the difficulties of the part.All the other roles are very corrects and the production is judicious without vulgarity.

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