Richard STRAUSS (1864 – 1949)
Salome (1905)
Herodes – Ragnar Ulfung (tenor)
Herodias – Barbro Ericson (mezzo-soprano)
Salome – Laila Andersson-Palme (soprano)
Jochanaan – Curt Appelgren (baritone)
Narraboth – John-Eric Jacobsson (tenor)
The Page of Herodias – Eva Pilat (contralto)
Royal Swedish Opera Chorus and Orchestra/Berislav Klobučar
Rec. live at the Royal Swedish Opera on 3 October 1990
German libretto with English translation enclosed
STERLING CDA 1843/1844-2 [77:21 + 20:45]
Sterling continue their series with live recordings by Swedish soprano Laila Andersson-Palme. After a double-CD titled ‘From Queen of the Night to Elektra’ (review) with songs and opera excerpts covering her whole amazing career, there have been complete recordings of Svart är vitt, sa kejsaren (review), Götterdämmerung (review), Tosca (review) and Gustaf Adolf och Ebba Brahe (review). This newcomer finds her in excellent form in one of her signature roles, the title role in Salome. My colleague Mike Parr, who reviewed the recording some weeks ago (review), mentions that he saw her in this opera in Montreal in the 1980s. I saw her in Stockholm, not the performance recorded here 1990, but the premiere of the production in 1982. The conductor then was Neeme Järvi and most of the cast was different too, but Barbro Ericson was Herodias as here and truly magnificent also then.
The present performance was given in remembrance of Göran Järvefelt, the stage director of the production, who died in November 1989 of a brain tumour at age 42. He was much liked and Laila Andersson appreciated him a lot. In an interview in the booklet she says: ‘{He] was an unobtrusive and apparently timid person who radiated harmony around him, but he was also a perfectionist and had an analytical ability.’ No doubt he inspired her to do her very best, not least in this particular performance where so much feeling and sorrow must have been involved. But the 1982 performances was not her first Salome. She had already sung the role in Graz, and after that at the Metropolitan in New York and in Gelsenkirchen in 1981. Later she sang it in various places and altogether she did it 23 times at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and 55 times abroad.
The live recording is good with a realistic balance between the stage and the pit. The sound picture varies a bit, probably because of stage movements. Herodes sometimes seems very distant and occasionally voices are drowned by the orchestra, which is a recurrent problem with this opera, where Strauss’s revelry in sound eruptions can be unsurmountable for the singers when the conductor blazed away. Fortunately Berislav Klobučar is a very sensitive conductor, who always is considerate towards his singers – something Laila Andersson also points out in the interview. The whole performance is ideally paced and full of nuances and Klobučar never holds back when he has the field to himself, which means that it is a really dynamic performance. And he draws excellent playing from the Royal Orchestra, who obviously love playing under him. There is glowing string playing in the dance and impressive brass. What can be an obstacle to complete enjoyment for some listeners is the stage noise which can be very intrusive – more so in a sound recording than in the theatre or a DVD recording when you see what causes it. But this performance is so engaging that it is easy to be indulgent.
The singing is also first class. In the many secondary roles there are many great singers from the permanent ensemble of the Royal Opera of that time, some of them still active. The dominating character is of course Salome, a tremendously demanding part that requires both lyrical and highly dramatic expertise. Laila Andersson, with about 70 performances behind her at the time of recording, fulfils these requirements with knobs. Her tone is wonderfully youthful, almost girlish at times and few singers in my experience has sung the role so lyrically, with such expressive pianissimos. Considering that she was in her late 40s and had a career of more than 25 years behind her, this is truly amazing. At the same time she has the required steel in the voice for the long final scene, and still with such beauty of tone. With the silver shield carrying the head of Jochanaan in her hands she sings her monologue beginning Du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund küssen lassen with masterly identification. Incidentally there is a timing error for this scene in the booklet, which says 3:45, but in reality it is 11:17. The set is worth owning for these 11:17 alone, but the role as an entity is just as masterly.
But even though the title role is all-important in this opera, there is a lot of excellence elsewhere too. As Herodes and Herodias we have two legendary mastersingers at the Royal Opera, both of them past 60 at the time, both in splendid shape and both still among us at the time of writing (December 2020): Tenor Ragnar Ulfung and mezzo-soprano Barbro Ericson. Ulfung is occasionally strained but as always so expressive, and Ms Ericson the mainstay of the department, having sung her first Herodias as early as 1967. Curt Appelgren is a sonorous and nuanced Jochanaan – another durable singer, whom I heard a couple of years in a private gathering, then aged 75, singing with undiminished power, expressivity and charisma Basilio’s slander aria from Il barbiere di Siviglia. Another veteran, also almost 60, tenor John-Eric Jacobsson makes a good Narraboth. Eva Pilat, the youngster in this company, is a convincing Page.
Though this recording can’t compete with the recordings by Solti and Karajan as a first choice for Salome, at least on sonic grounds, it has a great deal to offer. For readers who heard Laila Andersson as Salome in the flesh, it is an almost obligatory purchase and regular operagoers in Stockholm in the late 20th century should grab the opportunity to hear a handful of the best singers there, mostly sparsely represented on CD.
Göran Forsling
Previous review: Mike Parr
