Salome. MET HD transmission October 11th performance. Production: Jürgen Flimm. Cast: Karita Mattila (Salome), Ildiko Komlosi (Herodias), Kim Begley (Herodes), Juha Uusitalo (Jochanaan), Joseph Kaiser (Narraboth). Conductor: Patrick Summers.
As most will know, this HD Salome transmission is the 2008 revival of Karita Mattila (and Jürgen Flimm´s) 2004 Metropolitan Opera Salome.
As most will know, this HD Salome transmission is the 2008 revival of Karita Mattila (and Jürgen Flimm´s) 2004 Metropolitan Opera Salome.
Jürgen Flimm´s extraordinarily successful Salome production takes place a fictional totalitarian environment on the verge of a desert. The technical wood and glass constructions of the sets leading to Jochanaan´s underearthly prison resembles the grotesque and meaningless world of Franz Kafka and this half-desert setting complete with orthodox Jews and semi-naked executioners resonates extraordinarily well with the eeriness and perversion of the piece.
As expected, the cameras closed in on Herodes face at the end of the Dance of the Seven Veils. However, to see or not to see Karita Mattila naked on stage turned out to be entirely unimportant - the emotional nakedness of her Salome was simply devastating and is without doubt one of the great operatic performances of the past decades.
Karita Mattila´s Salome is a spoiled child who gradually slips into insanity. In the end you feel sorry for this sick girl, who has been raving around the sets increasingly drunk and desperate for attention. The childlike naivity of the character fits Karita Mattila´s general mix of naive and shy stage appearance uncannily well, probably a major contributing factor to her success. I cannot remember having seen such a tour de force performance with such committed acting. And such emotional nakedness on stage. Vocally, she is more than up to it as well - hitting all the notes on pitch and in the most impossible physical positions.
The rest of the cast was generally fine, Juha Uusitalo the traditional wild Jochanaan in his company debut. Juha Uusitalo will sing Scarpia to Karita Mattila´s Tosca on Met opening night next season according to an interview Uusitalo recently gave to a Finnish newspaper, as I trust my Finnish acquaintance translated him correctly. That leaves the rather unsurprising question: What about Bryn Terfel, the originally scheduled Scarpia?
Kim Begley a rather dry-voiced, but convincing Herodes, and Ildikó Komlosi a somewhat better-than-usual looking Herodias. Patrick Summers didn´t ruin it in the pit, however some intensity and perhaps a couple of ideas would not have been way off target.
Karita Mattila´s Salome is a spoiled child who gradually slips into insanity. In the end you feel sorry for this sick girl, who has been raving around the sets increasingly drunk and desperate for attention. The childlike naivity of the character fits Karita Mattila´s general mix of naive and shy stage appearance uncannily well, probably a major contributing factor to her success. I cannot remember having seen such a tour de force performance with such committed acting. And such emotional nakedness on stage. Vocally, she is more than up to it as well - hitting all the notes on pitch and in the most impossible physical positions.
The rest of the cast was generally fine, Juha Uusitalo the traditional wild Jochanaan in his company debut. Juha Uusitalo will sing Scarpia to Karita Mattila´s Tosca on Met opening night next season according to an interview Uusitalo recently gave to a Finnish newspaper, as I trust my Finnish acquaintance translated him correctly. That leaves the rather unsurprising question: What about Bryn Terfel, the originally scheduled Scarpia?
Kim Begley a rather dry-voiced, but convincing Herodes, and Ildikó Komlosi a somewhat better-than-usual looking Herodias. Patrick Summers didn´t ruin it in the pit, however some intensity and perhaps a couple of ideas would not have been way off target.
However brilliant the performance of Salome, the HD transmission was an almost-complete disaster. Transmitted live via satellite, the signal unfortunately got "caught in bad weather over the Atlantic" according to a company representative (I watched it in Copenhagen) and the transmission virtually crashed during the final scene omitting about one third of Karita Mattila´s singing. (Update: See comment #1). Small warning signals ("low signal") had popped up throughout the performance. As compensation, we were all offered a free ticket to a movie of our choice, such as the next HD live transmission. Rather fine service, all things considered.
As Salome is a one-act opera the participation of the transmission hostess (Deborah Voigt as Renée Fleming is in Vienna) was limited to knocking on Karita Mattila´s dressing room door immediately before she went on stage.
As Salome is a one-act opera the participation of the transmission hostess (Deborah Voigt as Renée Fleming is in Vienna) was limited to knocking on Karita Mattila´s dressing room door immediately before she went on stage.
This will be THE Salome to own when it (hopefully) appears on DVD.
Video clips of Karita Mattila´s Salome (from Paris) and audio clips of her 2004 Metropolitan Operaperformances may be seen here.
The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):
Karita Mattila: 5
Juha Uusitalo: 4
Kim Begley: 3
Ildiko Komlosi: 4
Jürgen Flimm´s production: 4-5
Patrick Summers: 3
Overall impression: 4-5
Karita Mattila: 5
Juha Uusitalo: 4
Kim Begley: 3
Ildiko Komlosi: 4
Jürgen Flimm´s production: 4-5
Patrick Summers: 3
Overall impression: 4-5
12 comments:
How can "bad weather over the Atlantic" interfere with a satellite transmission that's beamed up from New York 26,000 miles into space and then beamed down direct to Copenhagen?
Bad weather over the Atlantic could interfere with radio signals transmitted through the atmosphere, but not with a satellite transmission from New York during extraordinarily beautiful weather.
The signal problems you mention were also experienced in Boston... and there was only clear sky between New York and Boston.
Good question. This was what we were told by a representative. When my friend asked "what does the Atlantic have to do with it?" the representative shot back with a "are you a technical expert, Sir? - the MET uses the newest technology available".
As none of us knew exactly what that technology may consist of we didn´t know what to say..
I have to say that I disagree with the writer of this review. Don't get me wrong, Mattila's singing was magnificent, but as far as the telling of the story goes, I just didn't buy it. Not for one second.
The sets were cheezy, the blocking weird, and the actors' involvement in the story totally unconvincing. If you believed that the family was that perverse, and you believed the drunkenness and incestuousness of Herod, and you believed the emotional disturbance of Solome, then it would have been a very powerful experience. But, as it was, it came off as a total farce.
We didn't have any transmission problems here in Germany (Bremen) during the final scene and no warning signals either.
However, we missed the entire first scene for "technical difficulties", but it remains unknown if that was a problem with the satellite or if the staff at the cinema screwed up.
We too got a compensation in form of a free cinema ticket, though I doubt that it's eligible for the MET viewings. ;)
I enjoyed the performance, the Salome, Herodias and Jochanaan acts were all grand.
This performance was as disappointing as last spring's presentation of La
Fille de Regiment was delightful. The only thing devastating about it was how awful it was. Like Jimmy, I didn't buy it, and it was very nearly farcical. While Miss Mattila may be a widely acclaimed singer, she is simply too old to pass for Strauss's sick teenager. If this performance appears on DVD, save your money.
Bruce Henry
San Antonio, Texas
I saw it in Oslo, Norway and there were no big technical problems, just a small omit in the sound in the 4th scene.
I thought it was excellent from beginning to end. I have always thought that Herod and Salome were this crazy for the whole thing to be believable.
Mattila may be too old-looking to play the 16 year old Salome, but what singer can sing this role so wonderfully today (or any other time). Welitsch may have been 36 years old when she sang it with Reiner in '49, but considering all the other 40 and 50 year old Isoldes then age shouldn't be an issue at all as long as the musical line is held.
All the main singers were really great, also the conducting by Patrick Summer. The dance of the seven veils was, musically, really good, but I must admit that I was disappointed that there were so few veils.
The sound was a loud in the movie theater, but still it was a fantastic experience. I am looking forward for the DVD/Blu-ray (if it comes) and other Met HD broadcasts.
Here in San Diego one theater had no transmission and I completely missed Salome! I emailed The Met to find out whether or not this performance would be made available on DVD. I was told it wold NOT be released on DVD, which I truly find unbelievable. Let's hope the powers that be change their mind on this one.
It could mean they intend to release the 2004 performance w/Gergiev instead..(one may always hope)
I am sorry to say that while the singing was terrific the Dance of the Seven Veils was simply gross when seen up close in HD. I am sorry to say that the format places new demands on performers in terms of their physical appearance.
I'm sorry to hear that so many people in so many places were inconvenienced by transmission glitches. I happened to be in NY that day and had considered getting tickets to see it, but we finally decided to see a play instead and were pleased when we were able to attend an encore performance here in the Seattle area this evening. The recorded broadcast played flawlessly to a nearly empty theater, which would have been fine except for the person right behind me chewing on popcorn for the first third or so (there always seems to be someone doing this, and, while I don't notice it during regular movies, it's quite an irritant to my highly sensitized hearing during an opera. Oh, well. I got to see for $18 what I would have had to pay about a hundred to see live, and the movie theater needs to make its money too so it will keep showing these encores, since it's not always easy to get to an opera broadcast at 10:30 in the morning.)
I thought Mattila's performance was indeed amazing. To me she looked about as adolescent as someone with a voice her size can look, every movement was confident and committed, and her singing was always beautiful. There is indeed much about the opera that is perverse, and I think it would be hard to watch a really committed production without feeling slightly put off by it.
I have recently seen the replay of Salome with Karita Mattila from the Met. For me, it was a very disappointing production. This is supposed to be an opera about multiple obsessions, and the damage that can result (as Wilde knew full well when he wrote the play). And Salome is supposed to be an adolescent.
I blame Jurgen Flimm’s direction because I believe that Mattila is too intelligent an actor to have gone along with playing Salome as a predatory single woman (cougers, as they are known in Canada). Her dance emphasised that rather than her contempt for Herod and obsession with Jochanaan. The updating of the action and the appearance and actions of Herod and Herodias felt false to the music and libretto which depicted a group of perverted disolutes.
Compare it with the Friedrich/Stratas version or the Hall/Ewing version and see what this opera should be.
Archie
I saw it in Kyoto Japan Nov 22 during a weeklong morning run at Shochiku Movix--they also run Kabuki, which have been getting the HD treatment recently as well.
My problem with the production was not the artistic direction itself--this seemed stunning visually with enough psychologically intense dramatic acting to keep me involved--but with the drifting camera. Yes, I enjoyed close-ups of Salome's face when she sang, but not while she listened to her father--I wanted to see Herodotus himself. Worse were the long orchestral swirls of complex feeling, yet we were forced to watch a servant tidy the stage instead of look, with Salome, into the sky for answers to these unaccountable emotions.
Perhaps there is no good way to employ cameras that are not an ideal spectator, nor an onstage roving eye, but an interpretive director. But how can a document of a live opera performance show no musicians nor audience until the curtain call?
Anyway, I suppose I hould be grateful I can share in this international discussion of an opera performance as fresh as a month ago in New York with such knowledgable aestetes.
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