David McVicar’s startling production of Strauss’s Salome was back for its first revival, but without a first-rate cast. Dominated by the lacklustre and blunt tones of the German soprano Angela Denoke, Strauss’ orchestral and vocal maelstrom failed to take flight; instead we were left with a rather polite and indifferent reading, which was distinctly at odds with McVicar’s sharp and potent production.

Finding a soprano who can epitomise Strauss’ wish for a 16 year old princess with the voice of an Isolde, presents formidable casting problems. Nadja Michael (the first Salome in the premiere of this production in 2008) was certainly very convincing and youthful in the role, but the voice was severely compromised.  Angela Denoke however, is a rather mature looking and sounding Salome, whose voice is essentially big enough in the middle register, but which lacks a confident and blade-like top. Consequently all of the many high B Flats were taken rather tentatively and without success.  More worrying is the lack of dynamics used within the voice – a sort of one size fits all approach.  As I indentified in my review of a concert performance of Elektra at the Barbican, Denoke’s (Chrysothemis) voice appears to just die in the air, with the sound becoming very laboured and tired. There is also now a trace of a beat in sustained declamatory passages - hence Denoke’s wise decision to opt for less forceful singing wherever possible.  With thrilling Salome’s of the calibre of Nina Stemme and Evelyn Herlitzius available, plus worthy exponents like Sunnegardh, Voigt, Watson, Bullock, Barkmin, Naglestad, Uhl and Mattila with the role in their repertoire, we are hardly bereft of satisfactory interpreters.  It should also be remembered that Strauss himself revised his opinion of the sort of singer he would like to hear in the role, with a preference for a lyric soprano (for the 1930 production in Dresden, Strauss reduced the orchestration for Maria Rajdl), whose shimmering soprano (presumably of the penetrative variety) would alleviate the need for what Hofmannsthal referred to as “Wagnerian bawling”. This opens up the range of credible interpreters even further; we need not look for a new Nilsson, but a new Welitsch instead. Why therefore cast a Salome who could well be the most unsatisfactory (from a vocal perspective alone) seen on The Royal Opera House stage?  The answer is clearly down to when the casting department first identified this singer as a potential Salome at Covent Garden.  No doubt several years has passed since she was first singled out, hence her high reputation on the continent, but today we are left with a deeply unsatisfactory interpreter who has either failed to live up to her promise, or whose peak has now assuredly passed, with the voice suffering from singing such heavy roles.  The fault is therefore not Denoke’s, but Covent Garden’s.  To her credit however, Denoke is a convincing and committed actress, which goes some way towards salvaging the performance.  Her Salome is, to quote William Mann, no “kinky strip queen”, but full on Edwardian elegance and mangled femme fatale – a real car crash composition of neuroticism and Fay Wray chic.  Perhaps she should step back from singing some of the most demanding roles in the repertoire in order to rescue her voice at this critical juncture in her career?  I suspect that in a lighter repertoire she will prove to be a formidable exponent, but if she carries on singing roles like Salome, then it is unlikely she will be singing at all in five years time.

Johan Reuter possesses a luxurious baritone, but it lacked the thunderous boom we last heard from the previous Jochanaan, Michael Volle.  Fevered and maniacal, Reuter did hint at the sexual thrills derived by Jochanaan from his all-consuming religiosity. It could however, have been a more convincing performance were it not for all the endless staggering about and flopping on to the floor.  Sadly the end result was more Benny Hill than a prophet tortured by his own mind and by his oppressors.

The Herodias of Irina Mishura was deeply disappointing, with poorly connected registers and ugly chest notes liberally deployed.  It was a caricature performance which had little to recommend it.  The Herod of Gerhard Siegel however, was an entirely different proposition.  With consistently the best singing and characterisation of the night, Siegel’s rather robust tenor filled the auditorium with comical anxiety and incestuous lust for Salome.  One should never say that the Herod is the best thing in a performance of Salome, but that is a reflection both on Siegel’s incisive interpretation and the somewhat dire performances of most of his fellow principals.

Pretty much excellent support was provided by the rest of the cast, with the Narraboth of Andrew Staples and the Herodias’s Page of Sarah Castle, offering some of evening’s most luxurious singing.  Sadly the former Jette Parker Young Artist Vuyani Mlinde, failed to live up to his potential with a seemingly nervous and decidedly low impact First Nazarene.  I’ve often thought that Mlinde has all the basics of a good, well-schooled voice, but his stage presence is distinctly anonymous.  Based on this, his most recent performance, I see no reason to revise my opinion.

The glory of all Straussian scores is not just the female voice, but the orchestra.  This mighty score was given a superb and beautifully judged account by the Royal Opera House Orchestra under the direction of Hartmut Haenchen.  It never ceases to surprise you just how much of this score is decidedly lighter in texture than one would imagine, with Strauss often cosseting the singers, rather than swallowing them in a huge inferno of sound. From the exquisitely brief clarinet introduction, this exotic and middle-eastern tinged score bristled throughout the evening.  The heavier passages were semi-blistering (one could wish for a little more abandon at such moments) and the finale a nervous, twitching pastiche of screaming woodwind.  It was a near faultless performance, which made you admire all the more the deft precision of the orchestral players, from the pinched high Bs of the double basses as Salome nervously awaits the execution of Jochanaan, to the virtuoso xylophone played during the “Dance of the Seven Veils”.  If only the cast could equal the production and the orchestra, then we would truly have a Salome to reckon with.

Antony Lias
Opera Britannia

Photographs (c) Clive Barda