Search - Richard [1] Strauss, Rudolf Kempe, Orchestre National d'Ile de France :: Strauss: Salome

Miraculous

08/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a miraculous performance of Salome. Leonie Rysanek is simply superb in the name-part. Her big dramatic voice rich and ringing out thrillingly and gloriously at the climaxes. She stands alongside legends Ljuba Welitsch and Birgit Nilsson as the top interpreters of this role. The good thing is that this recording is in outstanding stereo. Everything is clear and you can hear the singers acting naturally and moving around on the stage in a 'live' performance. Leonie Rysanek is also outstanding as Salome in the RCA version under Karl Bohm at the Vienna State opera. That was one of the first few times she performed the part and it is a fabulous and famous performance, lauded to the skies. Here, she is even more experienced and even more dramatic. The RCA version is cheaper than this Melodram and also in excellent stereo. I don't advise buying budget label versions which have bad sound - go for the RCA which is more expensive but has significantly better sound. However, aside from Leonie Rysanek, the biggest and most urgent reason for acquiring this set is Jon Vicker's stunning Herod, one that almost upstages his Salome, or did he upstage his Salome? You could almost call this opera Herod. He is the best Herod I've ever heard. Every time he enters, it is as if a force of nature, a titanic hurricane, has swept across the stage right in front of your eyes. His enormous dramatic voice hits you like steel rod and you find yourself utterly stunned into submission by the sheer dramatic force that he unleashes upon you. Herod was a role Vickers seldom essayed (his biography only lists one performance of this role) so this recording is an all-important document preserving his incredible Herod, which is like Hercules. Leonie Rysanek as Salome and Ruth Hesse as Herodias seem to have been inspired by his electrifying portrayal of Herod. Fortunately for us, both of them are in exceptionally good voice. Ruth Hesse is highly dramatic as Herodias. Leonie Rysanek, as I mentioned earlier, also seem to have pulled out all stops in her portrayal of Salome, her intense and spine-chilling voice gripping you by the throat in high drama. She lets out a blood-curdling cry before 'Ah! Du wolltest mich nicht...', and when she sings those lines, your hair stands up in unmitigated horror. By the end of the her final scene, you're completely petrified by her dramatic necrophillic outbursts, her enormous and intense voice like waves and waves of tsunami hitting you relentlessly. This version is more expensive than the RCA version but this version has Jon Vickers, and an even more dramatic Leonie Rysanek and the extra dollars are worth it!! By the end, the performers have the audience clapping cherring in wild ecstasy.I also very highly recommend Birgit Nilsson's Decca set and her Bueno Aires set, and also Ljuba Welitsch's reading with Fritz Reiner or with Karajan. If you love Jon Vickers, get this set. If you love Rysanek, get this set (or alternatively the RCA but that doesn't have Vickers). If you love Salome, get this set (or alternatively Birgit Nilsson's with Solti under Decca). This is Rysanek's Salome and Vicker's Herod. The incentuous Volsung twins from Wagner's Ring incarnate as the incentuous Herod and psychologically perverted Salome. No partnership could be more thrilling in Salome - except perhaps Vickers and Nilsson."

Incredible!!

10/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow!! This opera could well be renamed "Herod". Jon Vicker's Herod almost upstages his Salome, or did he? Whatever, this is an incredibly sexual portrayal of Herod. Everything is beautifully sung and declaimed, yet incredibly intense and forceful. You just have listen to this guy to believe it!! On recordings, Jon Vicker's dramatic and vocal talents are incredibly good. 'Live' onstage, he proves to be even more astonishing!! I am not surprised that he was as highly paid as the more famous Luciano Pavarotti. The difference is that Luciano Pavarotti had an exclusive contract with Decca who marketed him aggressively. This is helped by the fact that Pavarotti loved publicity and was willing to pander to the popular public by singing "popular" songs outside the core operatic repertoire. On the other hand, Jon Vickers shunned publicity. This is not to denigrate Pavarotti but to make a statement that Jon Vickers, although lesser known, was no lesser talent among opera goers.Rysanek's Salome is more of a known quantity. Her famous 1972 success at the Vienna State Opera is available on the RCA label. There is another excerpt of the closing scene from a performance in 1971, and a video recording of a performance in Tokyo in 1980. Here, she is at her best. She seems inspired by the all-out performance of Jon Vickers. Her top has terrifying power and her dramatic talents are amazing. Everything here is captured in superb stereo so your money is worth every cent. For another superb performance of Salome, go for the Birgit Nilsson set with Sir Georg Solti."

Bravo!!

12/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bravo to Leonie Rysanek and Jon Vickers for displaying their incredible dramatic and vocal talents in this 'live' recording!!! An intense and electrifying performance not to be missed."