First Rate Richard Strauss' Salome - recommended by GERALD FENECH '... fine and emotionally sapping ...'

For Italian theatres and audiences Richard Strauss' operas have never commanded the popularity they deserve, so mounting a Strauss production in an opera house such as the one at Bologna must have been a daunting challenge. Let me say straight away that this 2010 venture is a humdinger of a show. The backbone of Salome's opulent setting is a series of densely woven leitmotifs, which elaborate the torrid relationship between Salome herself and the prophet John the Baptist; a tricky and highly difficult element to project with dignified language, but Gabriele Lavia's direction and production is marvelously balanced, and Salome's sexual obsession and cruelty as opposed to the Baptist's almost maniacal spiritual resistance is brought out with searing intensity while never spilling over into sordid decadence...

RICHARD STRAUSS

SALOME

BOLOGNA

ITALY

ARTHAUS MUSIK GMBH