Above: bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who sang Jochanaan this evening; like on the image to enlarge
Saturday March 1st, 2014 evening – The Vienna State Opera have provided two evenings of opera-in-concert at Carnegie Hall this week: last night we had Alban Berg’s WOZZECK and tonight Richard Strauss’s SALOME was performed. The WOZZECK was very good; the SALOME was sensational, even though the soprano singing the title-role was far from ideal. But such is the epic, perverse magnificence of this music – especially played as it was tonight – that even an imperfect performance of the name character couldn’t deter from my great pleasure in having been there.
En route to Carnegie Hall, I asked my friend Dmitry which he preferred: SALOME, or ELEKTRA? The latter, he replied…and that’s my feeling also. But I have to say this performance almost persuaded me otherwise. ARIADNE AUF NAXOS and ELEKTRA have for years now been my top two favorite operas, with SALOME, FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN and ROSENKAVALIER just slightly further down the list. That’s a lot of Strauss!
For tonight’s performance the same unfortunate stage setting was used as for last night’s WOZZECK: the principal singers were ranged on high platforms at the far sides of the stage. Dmitry had paid a goodly sum for our tickets but I could barely see the protagonist as she sang; anyone seated to my left would not have seen her at all.
The Vienna Philharmonic gave an absolutely thrilling account of the music, with the animated conductor Andris Nelsons doing a superb job of illuminating all the multi-coloured layers of sound that Strauss so thrillingly developed in this huge, complex score. From the most ominous bass notes to the marvelous playing of the flutes and piccolo, the orchestra players were astonishing; a special bravo! to the percussionists, kept ever so busy all evening, and doing a first-rate job of it.
The soprano Gun-Brit Barkmin was totally unknown to me, having never heard her name let alone any sample of her singing. She began very lamely, the voice small and colourless and mostly covered by the orchestra. We sometimes hear of ‘baby-doll’ Salomes: lyrics who can linger in the high range but lack the sheer gutsy power to truly satisfy in the role; Lisa Della Casa was considered by some to be in this category when she tackled the role in 1961. Ms. Barkmin, having to deal with the thundering orchestra onstage rather than in a pit, sang on, unfazed. As the evening progressed, she began to make something of an effect in the upper-lying passages, and perhaps I had gotten accustomed to listening for her rather than having her voice sail out to me. In the end, I did not find her a complete disaster – but her outfit, a mid-East version of the Disney character Maleficent – was pretty absurd.
The theatrical brilliance of Gerhard Siegel and Jane Henschel – as well as their potent singing – brought the roles of Herod and Herodias to high prominence in this performance. Though dressed in concert garb, these two fabulous singing actors carried on as if in a fully-staged performance: their caustic bickering was a delight from the moment they came onstage. And Mr. Siegel nailed a blazing top note in his final phrase ordering the execution of Salome.
Carlos Osuna was a lyrical Narraboth and Ulrike Helzel looked slender and sang richly as a superlative Page. All of the smaller roles were ideally handled by a contingent of top-flight character singers.
Replacing Falk Struckmann as Jochanaan, the Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Koniecny was a revelation as Jochanaan. Mr. Konieczny has a voice of exceptional power which he unleashed with unflagging vitality, establishing the character as a vocal bulwark of godliness in a perverse and vulgar world. His thundering condemnations of Herodias sung from offstage built our anticipation for the great dialogue between Salome and the prophet.
Once onstage, Mr. Konieczny’s voice seemed to quadruple in amplitude; the louder Maestro Nelsons drove the orchestra, the more powerful the bass-baritone’s voice seemed to become. But the singer was also capable of deeply-felt lyricism, as in the great passage where he tells the princess: “Go seek Him. He is in a boat on the sea of Galilee, and He talketh with His disciples. Kneel down on the shore of the sea, and call unto Him by his name. When he cometh to thee, and to all who call on Him He cometh, bow thyself at His feet and ask of Him the remission of thy sins.” Mr. Konieczny was so incredibly persuasive here that I thought I might start going to church again. But Jochanaan’s gentle aspect swiftly vanishes as Salome continues to tell him of her lascivious desires for him. In a rage of towering indignation, Jochanaan hurls his final imprecation at her: “Du bist verflucht!” (“You are accursed!”) and here Mr. Konieczny unleashed a final note of staggering power which he then, as the orchestral tidal wave came crashing in, amazingly sustained with a phenomenal crescendo. As he made his exit, I sensed that the audience desperately wanted to burst into applause; of course it didn’t happen, but it should have.
- Vienna State Opera
- Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, Conductor - Gun-Brit Barkmin, Soprano (Salome)
- Tomasz Konieczny, Bass-Baritone (Jochanaan)
- Gerhard A. Siegel, Tenor (Herodes)
- Jane Henschel, Mezzo-Soprano (Herodias)
- Carlos Osuna, Tenor (Narraboth)
- Ulrike Helzel, Mezzo-Soprano (Page)
- Norbert Ernst, Tenor (First Jew)
- Michael Roider, Tenor (Second Jew)
- James Kryshak, Tenor (Third Jew)
- Thomas Ebenstein, Tenor (Fourth Jew)
- Walter Fink, Bass (Fifth Jew)
- Adam Plachetka, Bass-Baritone (First Nazarene)
- Marcus Pelz, Bass (Second Nazarene)
- Dan Paul Dumitrescu, Bass (First Soldier)
- Il Hong, Bass (Second Soldier)
- Jens Musger, Bass (A Cappadocian)
- Gerhard Reiterer, Tenor (A Slave)
In passing I must note that Carnegie Hall is a physically uncomfortable venue. An article recently appeared condemning The Met for its lack of outer-lobby space; well, Carnegie is much worse, and before the gates open people are packed into the confining ‘foyer’ like sardines. Once inside and having scaled the heights to the balcony, one finds the auditorium staircases steep and uneven; and there is so little leg-room that – especially with a long ‘sit’ for something like SALOME or WOZZECK – muscle cramps are inevitable. Nevertheless it was worth it tonight just to hear such an orchestra, and to experience the great performances of Ms. Henschel and Mssers. Konieczny and Siegel.
Oberon's Glade 