Richard |
EVENINGS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC - BAHRAIN - |
PROGRAMME FOR 21 JUNE 2000 |
25 GREAT COMPOSERS SERIES This evening features 1 more composer (no 21 in the series) |
i ii iii iv |
Fruhling (Spring) September Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) Im Abendrot (At Gloaming) |
Gundula Janowitz (soprano) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by HERBERT VON KARAJAN |
21 |
RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949) |
VIER LETZTE LIEDER (Four Last Songs) |
21a |
21b |
SALOME |
Opera in one act Libretto: Hedwig Lachmann Premiere: 9 December 1905 in Dresden |
CAST Salome, daughter of Herodias Jokanaan, John the Baptist Herod, Tetrarch of Judea Herodias, wife of Herod Narraboth, captain of the Royal Guard |
- Maria Ewing (soprano) - Michael Devlin (baritone) - Kenneth Riegel (tenor) - Gillian Knight (mezzo-soprano) - Robin Leggate (tenor) |
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducted by EDWARD DOWNES Recorded April 1992 at Covent Garden Theatrical Director: Peter Hall |
Richard Strauss put all his power of musical descriptiveness into Salome - we are invited to feel the neurotic sexuality of the heroine as both alluring and repulsive. The opera is based on Oscar Wilde's play Salome (1894), written in French. Wilde made Salome infatuated with John the Baptist, and King Herod infatuated with Salome (his step-daughter) - two additions to the New Testament narrative. The play, literally translated into German and slightly cut, forms the libretto for Strauss's one-act opera. Salome herself is supposedly only in her teens - an impression most sopranos with the necessary stamina (vocal and physical) for the part do not find easy to convey. Most singers of the role also use a stand-in for the Dance of the Seven Veils. In the German pronunciation of Salome, the accent falls on the first syllable. The Story The scene is laid in Palestine in biblical times. On a terrace outside the banqueting hall of Herod's palace, Narraboth, captain of the guard, is with a page and two soldiers (who are guarding the cistern in which John the Baptist is imprisoned). Narraboth, looking into the hall, expresses his admiration of Salome, and the page warns him of the danger of looking at her thus. John's voice is heard from the cistern in impassioned prophecy of one 'who will follow me'. The soldiers and a Cappadocian converse. Soon Salome comes out of the hall: she is irritated by the Romans, Egyptians and Jews at Herod's feast and by Herod's lascivious glances at her. Hearing the prophet's voice, she is curious to see him. She knows that he has persistently reviled her mother. A slave comes to recall her to the feast, but she dismisses him. Her curiosity is further stimulated when she learns that John is a young man. Obeying Herod's order, the soldiers refuse to let her speak with him, but Narraboth, in response to her promises to look favourably on him, eventually orders them to let the prophet out. As he comes forth, repulsive in appearance after his imprisonment, he fiercely denounces the evil acts of Herod and especially Herodias. Salome is both fascinated and repelled. He shows no interest in her and merely tries to send her away, but this only inflames her fascination, which soon turns into lust. She expresses luridly her compulsive desire to touch his body, then his hair, then to kiss his mouth. He refuses, to her frustration and fury. Narraboth vainly tries to restrain her, and when Salome continues to express her desire to kiss John, Narraboth stabs himself. Telling Salome that she is accursed, John descends into the cistern again. Herod and Herodias enter. Herod is seeking Salome, to Herodias's annoyance. He comes upon Narraboth's body and orders it to be taken away. Then he invites Salome to share with him wine, then fruit and eventually his throne. But she is cold towards him. John's voice is heard again, to Herodias's discomfiture - but Herod is afraid of the prophet and refuses to have him silenced or to hand him over to the Jews. Among a group of Jews present a dispute breaks out, in which two Nazarenes (talking of the coming Messiah), and eventually Herod, join. John's denunciation of 'the daughter of Babylon' is taken by Herodias as an attack on her. Now Herod asks Salome to dance for him. She is at first unwilling, and Herodias orders her not to dance. But the desperate Herod promises her anything she desires. She makes him swear it, and then, despite her mother's protests, she dances the Dance of the Seven Veils. At the end of it, the inflamed Herod asks her what she desires - she asks for the head of John the Baptist on a silver charger. Herod, aghast, at first refuses. He thinks this is the doing of Herodias (who is delighted) but Salome assures him it is not. He does all he can to dissuade her from her request, promising her fabulous jewels or anything else she wants, even the mantle of the high priest and the sacred veil of the temple, but she steadfastly insists on holding him to his oath and having John's head. Eventually Herod gives way, full of foreboding. Herodias takes the Ring of Death from his finger and gives it to the executioner, who descends into the cistern. Salome waits tensely to hear John's cry, but there is none. She imagines that the executioner is afraid and has not killed John, and tells the page to go to summon soldiers. But then the huge black arm of the executioner appears from the cistern - in his hand is a silver shield with John's head upon it. Hungrily she kisses its lips, gloating in the triumph of her lust. Herod, repelled and full of fear, decides to go indoors. The lights are extinguished, but before going in Herod turns and sees Salome, in the light of the moon, still gloating, her passion sated. He orders the soldiers to kill her, and they crush her beneath their shields. |
Richard |
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