Something of a significant performance as this was the first live opera I had been to since the imposition of lockdown in March. Seating was not socially distanced (although that will be the case i for the performances in in October and beyond as when this was announced/arranged, cases had not started to rise as they have done in recent weeks). But the audience were all masked, as were gloved ushers and our temperature was take on entering.
Its very good to be able to report that, musically, the performance was superb. the orchestra under Balazs Kocsar was stunning. It was an incredibly vivid performance with the remarkable orchestration being brilliantly illuminated and the technical terrors of the score were easily overcome by the players. There was also a strong sense of structure which meant that there was a sense of dramatic inevitability as the performance unfolded. Often this piece can just seem like a series of climaxes which can be wearying. Karoly Szemeredy was an imposing Jokanaan both physically and vocally while as Herod and Heodias (Jurgen Sacher and and Gyongi Lukas) managed to make them something less than the grotesque cartoon exaggerations that they can be not that this is a bad thing in itself - it depends on the nature of the production that they are in and in this case, this more subdued and realistic approach fitted the production style well.
But along with the conductor, the other star was the Salome, Sera Gosch. This was, vocally a stunningly impressive performance. Her voice was a powerful silver that soared above the unleashed orchestra at the climaxes with no sense of strain but which could also be reduced to a small but rounded sliver of sound. I was supervised at the relatively restrained response form the audience at the end…
So, vocally, and musically, this really could not have been bettered. But now the production. In the PR for the production (a new one) much was made of the fact that the set was based on archaeological findings of one of Herod’s palaces (which immediately told us that the production style would be more traditional - which was and is ,fine) but this fact seemed to be the only point of interest. As a production, in terms of stagecraft, character illumination, and development, there was not really anything there. Nothing was done on stage that detracted from the telling of the story, but nothing was done ti illuminate it - and I felt that there had not been a great deal of guidance for the performers in terms of movement/gesture/blocking. One good touch was how Salome tied Herod to the entrance to Jokanaan’s prison cell during much of the dance - and having him come out stooped from this cell was an effective visual touch. Again, nothing that detracted from the work was done - but little seemed to have been done, period. In this context it was a very safe production - but one that did give a very sound a straightforward view of the piece.
So, a musically superb performance - as a production somewhat meh…