Prom 58 30.08.14: Salome, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Runnicles

[Flosshilde]

But my goodness Nina S earned her money. She gave 110% & sang with extraordinary courage, commitment & confidence. Great stuff.

I've only seen/heard her live once - for a concert performance of Act I of Tristan & Isolde. She was, apparently, not well, but she was wonderful. I envy those of you who were in the RAH tonight.

I liked her (reported) comment that she has three teenage daughters, which allowed her to understand how teenage girls didn't always understand the signals & messages they gave.

[Nick Armstrong]

So maybe there's still a chance of my doing Wotan at Bayreuth - I'm only just 60

Let 'em have it, Mart

(Been out so missed this concert, sounds like it needs a catch-up. Good Jokanaan? (Is that what gradus's #12 was about?)

[Prommer]

A very good Jock, Caliban, but he cracked rather horribly at one point. Stemme was as fabulous as ever but it did remind me of how much more I like most of his other operas - Elektra for example, which is so much richer and more satisfying, both as a story and on a psychological level, but also musically.

If you want a 'top that' Salome, try this, Birgit Nilsson at the Met Gala for Rudolf Bing. The final scene, conducted by Karl Bohm in the small hours of the morning to finish the gala - the orchestra and Birgit in full spate throughout, and with a 'concert' ending. Dr Bohm apparently called her a horse, or a camel, or some such flattering term, so he had decided that the stops should all be out.

http://youtube/HQpm6A4SF_Q

[Flosshilde]

Unfortunately your link didn't work, Prommer, but I found this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07jt7elBNwc

[Prommer]

Yes that's the one Flosshilde - many thanks! Cali might regard her as a dodgy warbler of course...

[Nick Armstrong]

Cali might regard her as a dodgy warbler of course...

That would depend upon whether or not she warbles dodgily!

[Prommer]

Pretty laser-like our Birgit... Can one warble un-dodgily anyway? I guess a small-voiced warbler is less offensive than a big one!

[grandchant]

I thought it was very well conducted and very well played. Nina Stemme; here it gets difficult. She has to push her voice hard, it gets hard edged and vibrato increases to a point that's only just (to me) bearable. OK so it's a dramatic role. Also, I get hacked off with people having a go at singers because their voice is the voice they've got and they do what they have to. They can't just buy/hire a better instrument, and, in this case, it's better to be true to the role than to hold back in favour of a 'nicer' sound. So I'm torn.

[Prommer]

I hear she was down the pub afterwards - wish I had known which one!

Hope her pint still had a good head on it...

[Ferretfancy]

I hear she was down the pub afterwards - wish I had known which one!

Hope her pint still had a good head on it...

I'd have happily stood her another round! It was great to be close enough to see Nina Stemme's facial expressions, rather good acting I thought. I was struck by the fact that there wasn't really a weak link in the cast, and for once we got a Herod who sang all the notes instead of being like Dwight Fry in Frankenstein. A terrific evening.

[Zucchini]

I'm still reeling from Nina S's magnificent onslaught. Telegraph likewise it appears: "Overwhelming" -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/proms/11066255/Salome-Deutsche-Oper-BBC-Prom-58-Royal-Albert-Hall-review-overwhelming.html

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm still reeling from Nina S's magnificent onslaught. Telegraph likewise it appears: "Overwhelming" -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...rwhelming.html

And likewise our friend SimonB (this was part of a post about his return trip for Elektrification this evening...):

I was (not by choice - too close for my liking) sat in the front row of the stalls about 10 feet from Nina Stemme for most of Salome and I think my hair may still be horizontally blasted towards the back of my head as though I've been stood in a wind tunnel overnight. Deeply impressive,

Sounds almost literally stunning...

[Lento]

I hear she was down the pub afterwards - wish I had known which one!

Hope her pint still had a good head on it...

Perhaps a vocal expert can tell us if she was using head tone.

[mercia]

if its not a silly question, what goes on onstage during the Dance of the Seven Veils ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

if its not a silly question, what goes on onstage during the Dance of the Seven Veils ?

Depends on the production - Maria Ewing did a striptease, other singers use a "body double" dancer. When Opera North performed the Opera semi-staged in Leeds Town Hall, the singers mimed watching her dance; Herod getting increasingly hot under the collar, taking off his jacket, then his tie, unbuttoning his sleeves and rolling them up - hilarious! (The sort of thing you can only do in these Brecht-ish productions.)