Salome

Published Monday 25 February 2008 at 13:00 by George Hall

David McVicar’s new production of Strauss’ shocking biblical tale as fleshed out by Oscar Wilde is reset in more recent times. Es Devlin’s costumes suggest the thirties, her set some well-used anteroom to the kitchens of a palatial Middle Eastern residence.

Devlin also provides the evening’s coup de theatre, when Salome’s dance for Herod leads them both through seven rooms that move from the wings to centre stage. The dance itself, though, in Andrew George’s choreography, is more a review of Salome’s psychological past, with video images suggesting an abusive relationship with her stepfather, than a display of teenage sexuality used to manipulative and perverse ends.

Unusually for McVicar, the show as a whole lacks clarity of focus, though there is some effective detail and some truly disturbing moments. Not quite enough, perhaps, to make the opera the steadily rising curve of opulent degeneracy its creator had it mind, something not helped by conducting from Philippe Jordan that is distanced and less punchy than it might be.

Ex-mezzo Nadja Michael needs more charisma and soprano gloss to make Salome shine and Michaela Schuster’s rich-voiced Herodias is a little too amiable. Robin Leggate, standing in as Herod for an indisposed Thomas Moser on the first night, goes through the vocal and dramatic motions with alacrity. Michael Volle’s grand presence and grander tone, however, make his John the Baptist a force to be reckoned with.