Monday 18 February 2008

Karita Mattila´s Salome

Karita Mattila´s Salome documented with the below video clips from her 2003 Paris Salome debut and audio clips from the Metropolitan 2004 run of performances of Jürgen Flimms´s production, revived in 2008/9. Review of the 2009 Met performance here.

Karita Mattila is the best Salome I´ve heard since Ljuba Welitsch, The timbre of Mattila´s voice is just incredibly moving in a way that´s difficult to explain, but which is apparent from the video clips below.

Confrontation with Jochanaan - Paris (James Conlon conducts, Falk Struckmann is Jochanaan)

Final scene - part 1:

Final scene - part 2:

Posted by Operalou on YouTube

Salome, Final Scene Part 1, Metropolitan 2004, Audio with clips from the production:




Salome, Final Scene Part 2, Metropolitan 2004, Audio with clips from the production:


Salome, First Confrontation with Jochanaan, Metropolitan 2004, Audio with clips from the production:



Salome, Second Confrontation with Jochanaan, Metropolitan 2004, Audio with clips from the production:


4 comments:

Bogplukkerne said...

Thangs for the lovely sound clips! Salome is one of my absolute top three operas.

Karita Mattila surely has a lovely voice and great radiance to judge by the still pictures. She has a rather beautefull depth to her voice - almost to much timbre in her lower registre for a soprano.. :-)

While it would be wellcome with som collour to most of the meek soprano parts, it doesn't suit my Salome. On the contrary it makes her too round and womanly and deprives her some of that young teenage love run comletely mad.

I miss some more of the hill but sweat intensity and I am not bewitched by the climaxes as I have experienced with Inga Nielsen. To me she is and was the ultimative Salome both on stage and on recording. Nobody as her gives the part so much sweatness, madness, young girl innocens and intens power. Furthermore her voice is very clear and without the sharp attacks which Marita shares with many sopranos in the forte.

But that is minor details which comes to my mind because she really is very good and I would very much like to experience her performance one day.

Britt

Bogplukkerne said...

... miss some more of "over" the hill... :-)

Britt

mostly opera... said...

One of the things, which I find so fascinating about the role of Salome, is the wide range of interpretatory possibilities. I completely agree that Inga Nielsen was a superb Salome as well, bringing quite another quality to the role with her crystal-clear soprano and completely on-pitch singing (which, agreed Karita Mattila is not always).
Furthermore, Inga Nielsen was superb live and I am fortunate to have experienced her several times in Copenhagen.

I am seriously considering to try to catch some of Mattila´s performances at the MET this autumn if at all feasible..(depends on my economy-at-the-time as well).

I´ll try and upload some sound-clips with Ljuba Welitsch, who had an utterly distinct voice and brought yet another quality to the portrait.

By the way, I am curious to hear what your other two favourite operas are?

Bogplukkerne said...

Well, that's a tough question, the bold remark being some what retoric. But Elektra has to be one of the two and I guess that Tristan and Isolde most be the other - closely followed by the complete Ring.

I also have a very soft spot for Mozarts "enfürung aus dem Serail" as it was the first opera learned by heart as a new and green opera fan now almost 20 years ago :-)

Britt

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