Salome (Angela Denoke at Covent Garden, 2010) finally gets to kiss the mouth of the prophet Jochanaan, who may have wished he'd let her do it when his head was still attached to him.
by Ken
It was as part of our Caballé-remembrance series that, last week, we ventured into Salome ("Some out-of-this-world sounds from a singer who proves mistress of a surprising role"). Now, having ventured there, I don't see how we can leave without some further exploring, and for this week's installment we're not even going to have Caballé at the center -- though I think you'll notice, if you compare her with the (very fine) other Salomes we'll be hearing, that she's plugged into the role in a way that is very much her own.
Just to recap, the opera is set on a terrace of the palace of Herod, the tetrarch of Judea, inside which a great feast is taking place. For a while the audience is invited to observe the wild infatuation of a handsome young captain, Narraboth, with the princess Salome, daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter (as well as niece) of the tetrarch (her father, Herodias's first husband, was Herod's half-brother), and we've been introduced to some of the many palace functionaries and guests who populate the terrace (and the opera), including a page of Herodias (presumably male) who appears as fixated on Narraboth as the latter is on Salome. We've also heard briefly from a still-invisible character: Safely locked away in a heavily guarded cistern is the prophet Jochanaan, aka John the Baptist, who despite his unfortunate incaraceration voices a soaring brand of religious ecstasy, for which Strauss found an appropriately ecstatic musical format, even as the prophet details the sea of human corruption all around.
Last week we heard Salome make her escape from the banquet to the terrace, and this week we're going to overlap a clip we heard last week, so we can immediately hear Salome switching on a dime from pouting rage to angelically youthful sweetness. One point to note: As far as I know we're not given an age for Salome, but the implication seems fairly clear that she's still a teenager, and again I would call attention to the young-girlishness that comes out so strongly in Strauss's musical setting, at least if the singer can make it come out, which it seems to me Caballé did, at least in the RCA recording of the opera conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, better than any other Salome I've heard. Again, the sound that's made by a big-voiced singer capable of scaling the voice down has an intensity and excitement that a smaller-voiced singer can't match -- as a matter of fact, as I think I've already mentioned, Birgit Nilsson, the greatest of the post-Welitsch Salomes, who pretty much obliterated the competition in the flaming outbursts, did some of her most memorable work in Salome's quiet moments.
LET'S HEAR SOME MUSIC ALREADY!
As we pick up, Salome has been grumbling dismissively about ethnic cohorts of banquet guests, dismissing in turn the Jews, Egyptians, and Romans -- and now, as we hear, really going off on the Romans. In a moment she will be struck by hearing the sequestered voice of the Prophet from his cistern. From there, very much as the Page has forecast, a chain of monstrous events will be set in motion.
SALOME: O how I hate these Romans!
THE PAGE [to NARRABOTH]: Horrible things will happen.
Why are you looking at her that way?
SALOME: How good it is to see in the moon.
It is like a silver flower, cool and chaste.
Yes, like the beauty of a virgin,
who has remained pure.
THE VOICE OF JOCHANAAN [from the cistern]:
See, the Lord has come.
The Son of Man is near.
SALOME: Who was that who here called out?
SECOND SOLDIER: The Prophet, Princess.
SALOME: Ah, the Prophet!
The one of whom the Tetrarch is afraid?
SECOND SOLDIER: We know nothing about that, Princess.
It was the prophet Jochanaan who called out here.
NARRABOTH [to SALOME]:
Would it please you that I have your litter brought, Princess?
The night is beautiful in the garden.
SALOME: He says horrible things about my mother, right?
SECOND SOLDIER: We understand nothing of what he says, Princess.
SALOME: Yes, he says horrible things about her.
A SLAVE [entering]: Princess,
the Tetrarch implores you to go back inside to the feast.
SALOME: I will not go inside.
[The SLAVE leaves.]
SALOME: Is this Prophet an old man?
FIRST SOLDIER: No, Princess, he is quite young.
THE VOICE OF JOCHANAAN: Rejoice not, you land of Palestine,
because the staff of the one who smote you is broken.
For from the seed of the serpent will come a basilisk,
and its brood will devour the birds.
SALOME: What a strange voice.
I would like to speak with him.
SECOND SOLDIER: Princess, the Tetrarch
does not allow that anyone speak with him.
He has even forbidden the High Priest to speak with him.
SALOME: I wish to speak with him!
SECOND SOLDIER: It is impossible, Princess.
SALOME: I want to speak with him!
Have this Prophet brought out!
SECOND SOLDIER: We don't dare, Princess.
SALOME [steps to the cistern and looks down into it]:
How black it is down there!
It must be horrible to live in such a black hole!
It is like a crypt.
[To the SOLDIERS] Did you not hear?
Bring the Prophet out!
I would like to see him!
1st SOLDIER: Princess,
we may not do what you demand.
SALOME [catches sight of NARRABOTH]: Ah!
THE PAGE: Oh, what will happen?
I know, something horrible will happen.
SALOME [steps up to NARRABOTH, speaking softly and animatedly]: You will do this for me, Narraboth, right?
I was always well disposed toward you.
You will do this for me.
I would just like to see him, this strange Prophet.
People have talked so much about him.
I believe the Tetrarch is afraid of him.
NARRABOTH: The Tetrarch has expressly forbidden
that anyone lift the lid off this well.
SALOME: You will do this for me, Narraboth,
and tomorrow when I, in my litter, pass through
the gateway where the idols of the gods stand, will I
let a little flower fall for your, a little green flower.
NARRABOTH: Princess, I can not, I can not.
SALOME: You will do this for me, Narraboth.
You know that you will do this for me.
And tomorrow morning I, under my muslin veils,
will cast you a glance, Narraboth,
I will look right at you, and it may be
that I will give you a smile.
Look at me, Narraboth, look at me.
Ah! How well you know
that you will do what I ask of you.
How you know it!
I know, that you will do this.
NARRABOTH [gives the SOLDIERS a sign]:
Let the Prophet come forth.
The Princess Salome wishes to see him.
SALOME: Ah!
[THE PROPHET comes out of the cistern. SALOME, engulfed in his sight, steps back from him.]
Montserrat Caballé (s), Salome; Julia Hamari (ms), The Page; Sherrill Milnes (b), Jochanaan; David Kelly (bs), Second Soldier; James King (t), Narraboth; Elizabeth Bainbridge (ms), A Slave; Neil Howlett (b), First Soldier; London Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA, recorded June 1968
[NOTE: This audio file keeps going "unplayable" on me, and nothing I can do seems to make it right. If you can't play it, feel free to holler, but at this point I'm not optimistic that I can fix it.]
Birgit Nilsson (s), Salome; Josephine Veasey (ms), The Page; Eberhard Wächter (b), Jochanaan; Heinz Holecek (bs-b), Second Soldier; Waldemar Kmentt (t), Narraboth; Liselotte Maikl (ms), A Slave; Zenon Kosnowskt (bs), First Soldier; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded October 1961
Leonie Rysanek (s), Salome; Marga Schiml (ms), The Page; Thomas Stewart (b), Jochanaan; Xavier Taudet (bs), Second Soldier; Horst R. Laubenthal (t), Narraboth; Victor von Halem (bs), First Soldier; Orchestre National de France, Rudolf Kempe, cond. Live performance from the (outdoor) Festival d'Orange, July 14, 1974
Ljuba Welitsch (s), Salome; Kerstin Thorborg (ms), The Page; Herbert Janssen (b), Jochanaan; Phillip Kinsman (bs), Second Soldier; Brian Sullivan (t), Narraboth; Inge Manski (ms), A Slave; Jerome Hines (bs), First Soldier; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. Live performance, Mar. 12, 1949
I didn't intend to run this excerpt as long as the 8-9 minutes it wound up, but I kept expanding it at both ends, moving backward, as noted above, to hear those swift personality transformations of Salome while at the other end letting it run farther and farther -- I just couldn't find a place where I was willing to stop. Finally I let it run, not just through Salome's dawning fascination with the Prophet, pumping the two soldiers for information and conceiving the idea that she would really like to see this mystery man, but continuing through her irresistible reduction of poor Narraboth to emotional jelly and through the extraordinary orchestral interlude that marks the emergence of Jochanaan from the cistern. As you may have gathered, at the point where the clips stop, he's just about to open his mouth for the first time in our hearing in the open air.
With regard to the recordings, again the RCA, in addition to Caballé's Salome, seems to me to get an amazing number of things about the opera's tone and temperament right. I also wanted to have Nilsson's Salome represented, and since I thought we might be hearing more of Jochanaan than we wound up doing, the studio recording with Eberhard Wächter in the role was a no-brainer. In theory I'd like to have a deeper, more bass-baritonish voice, but the character has to really pound out a lot of high-lying writing, and I've never heard anybody do this more refulgently, even thrillingly, than Wächter.
Again I was thinking about Jochanaan in rounding out our trio of recordings with the Kempe-Orange performance, where Thomas Stewart qualifies as an authentic Heldenbariton. I didn't in any case need much prodding to include the Kempe performance, which I like a lot, even with the sonic limitations of an outdoor performance, and since Kempe didn't make a studio recording, this is as close as we can get. (We haven't even yet heard its most memorable element: the Herod of Jon Vickers. I promise, we'll get to it.)
NOTE: A late addition to the roster -- once I finally got what was supposed to be an "easy" post up -- is the 1949 Met performance, emphatically not for the Jochanaan but just as emphatically for the Salome, Ljuba Welitsch, whose unique Salome-ly virtues should require no glossing from me, except that this is a voice for the role which comes along once in a . . . well, I'm not sure that there's ever been another Salome voice this beautiful, forceful, and agile, and indeed it didn't last long. But while it did, wow!
A QUICK LOOK AHEAD AT THE HORRIBLE THINGS TO COME
Jochanaan does not nothing to encourage Salome's fascination with him. In fact, he does everything he can to escape her attention. (I'm hoping we can get into this scene a bit, perhaps next week.) But the more he rejects and verbally abuses her, the more powerful her lust for him grows, and the more overtly she expresses it, finally voicing the idea, which seems quite reasonable to her, that she kiss him.
By the time those horrible things have played out, Salome has gotten her stepfather to honor his promise to give her anything she asks for if she would dance for him -- demanding, to his horror, but her mother's considerable pleasure, the head of Jochanaan on a platter. We're going to spend more time on this Final Scene next time, but for now I though we'd simply hear what we might call a "concert version" of Salome's "final song," as it's billed on one recording. We pick up at the moment when the platter is delivered to Salome and continue -- with some parts for the princess's parents omitted -- to the end of the opera.
What we're hearing now are four studio recordings of this concert version. The first two, conducted the the same eminent Straussian, feature ranking Salomes of their times, whom we'll be hearing eventually in live performances (in less satisfactory sound) of the scene as it appears in the opera. The other two versions are by ringers, sopranos who as far as I know never actually sang the role (at least I don't think Julia Varady did), but had a wonderful feel for the "float" of a Straussian line and for records sang this great scene pretty darned beautifully. (They're both accompanied by conductors of impeccable Straussian operatic credentials. Varady's conductor, her husband, came by his Strauss credentials, at least in part, by singing at least eight Strauss operatic roles, not to mention all the songs that can be sung by a man.)
[A huge black arm, the arm of the executioner, stretches out of the cistern, bearing on a silver shield the head of JOCHANAAN. SALOME grabs it. HEROD hides his face in his cloak. HERODIAS fans herself and laughs. The NAZARENES sink to their knees and begin to pray.]
SALOME: Ah! You wouldn't let me kiss your mouth, Jochanaan!
Well, I will kiss it now!
I will bite into it with my teeth,
as one may bite into a ripe fruit.
Yes, I will kiss it now, your mouth, Jochanaan.
I said it. Did I not say it? Yes, I said it.
Ah! Ah! I will kiss it now.
But why don't you look at me, Jochanaan?
Your eyes, which were so horrible,
so full of rage and contempt, are closed now.
Why are they closed? Open your eyes then,
so lift up your lids, Jochanaan!
Why don't you look at me?
Are you afraid of me, Jochanaan,
that you won't look at me?
And your tongue, it speaks no word, Jochanaan,
that scarlet viper that spat its poison toward me.
It is strange, no?
How does it happen that this red viper stirs no more?
You spoke evil words against me -- against me,
Salome, daughter of Herodias, princess of Judea.
Well now! I am still living, but you are dead,
and your head, your head belongs to me!
I can do with it what I will.
I can throw it to the dogs, and to the birds of the air.
What the dogs leave over, the birds of the air will consume.
Ah! Ah! Jochanaan, Jochanaan, you were beautiful.
Your body was an ivory column on silver feet.
It was a garden full of doves
in the sparkle of silver lilies.
Nothing in the world was as white as your body.
Nothing in the world was as black as your hair.
In the whole world was nothing as red as your mouth.
Your voice was an incense dispenser,
and when I looked at you, I heard mysterious music.
Ah! Why didn't you look at me, Jochanaan?
You laid over your eyes the blindfold of one
who would look upon God.
Well, you have seen your God, Jochanaan,
but me, me you never saw.
Had you seen me, you would have loved me!
I thirst for your beauty. I hunger for your body.
Not wine or apples can quiet my desire.
What am I to do now, Jochanaan?
Not floods nor the great waters
can quench this burning desire.
Oh! Why didn't you look at me?
Had you looked at me, you would have loved me.
I'm sure of it, you would have loved me.
And the secret of love is greater than the secret of death.
[HEROD and HERODIAS prepare to retire. The servants put out the torches. The stars disappear. A great cloud crosses over the moon and hides it completely. The stage becomes totally dark. The TETRARCH begins to climb the staircase.]
[Faintly] Ah! I have kissed your mouth, Jochanaan.
Ah! I have kissed it, your mouth,
there was a bitter taste on your lips.
Did it taste of blood?
No! But it tasted perhaps of love.
They say that love tastes bitter.
But what of it? What of it?
I have kissed your mouth, Jochanaan.
I have kissed it, your mouth.
[On command from HEROD, soldiers swoop down on SALOME and bury her under their shields.]
Ljuba Welitsch (s), Salome; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded, Mar. 14, 1949
Inge Borkh (s), Salome; Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA, recorded Dec. 10, 1955
Leontyne Price (s), Salome; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA, recorded 1965
Julia Varady (s), Salome; Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, cond. Orfeo, recorded Apr. 26-29, 1999
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