I love Richard Strauss' music, particularly Four Last Songs, Don Juan and Der Rosenkavalier, but Salome is a wonderful work and worth seeing for Dance of the Seven Veils alone, though there is the superb music, and compelling story and characters to love too.
This Salome is truly marvellous. The costumes and sets are superb and the camera work splendid. Dance of the Seven Veils perhaps is a little slow in tempo, however the atmosphere and the staging more than make up for it as well as a wonderfully erotic Stratas.
The orchestral playing is some of the best and most passionate I've heard in a while, and Karl Bohm's expertise in Strauss comes through loud and clear.
The cast I can't fault either. Teresa Stratas is perhaps not the ideal Salome vocally, but she is terrific in the role, she sings absolutely beautifully and with power and she does show a gift for acting. Hans Beirer is brilliant as Herod, but the best performances for me come from Astrid Varnay as a limpid Herodius and Bernd Weikl as a thunderous Jochannan.
All in all, marvellous. 10/10 Bethany Cox
