Strauss’ most intense and shocking opera, Salome,continues Opera North’s successful series of dramatic operas presented in concert.
Salome, the teenage step-daughter of King Herod, is an object of fascination and lust for the guard Narraboth, and for Herod himself. Agreeing to perform the ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ for her step-father, she demands a macabre gift in return: the severed head of the man she herself desires, the imprisoned prophet Jokanaan (John the Baptist).
Every moment of the story unfolds with unflinching vividness, illuminating the darkest corners of a world that has lost all moral compass. Concentrated into just 100 intense minutes, this is opera at its most extreme.
Based on Oscar Wilde’s play of the same title, Richard Strauss’ third opera Salome was an immediate, albeit scandalous, success when it premiered in 1905, its Biblical theme permeated with disturbing layers of violence and eroticism. The magnificently rich and intricate score, written for vast orchestral forces, is both ferociously exciting and surprisingly lyrical, building to a feverish climax that has never lost its capacity to chill the blood.
Distinguished British conductor Sir Richard Armstrong returns to Opera North to conduct these concerts of Salome, following a triumphant tour of Puccini’s Turandot in concert halls across England in 2017.
American soprano Jennifer Holloway makes her Opera North debut in the title role a part she recently sang in Dresden, after moving from mezzo to soprano repertoire.
Dutch tenor Arnold Bezuyen makes his Opera North debut as Herodes;Swedish mezzo Katarina Karnéus, sings Herodias, while Jokanaan is sung by Robert Hayward.
Salome is at Leeds Town Hall on three occasions: –
19 April and 25 April at 7.30 and 22 April at 4.00pm
To book:-Box office:0844 848 2720 or operanorth.co.uk
The post OPERA AT ITS MOST EXTREME appeared first on Leeds Guide.