THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411190471
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Virginia Opera chief Peter Mark has been wanting to produce Wagner. Friday, stage director Sergio Vela did - even though the opera was by Richard Strauss.
Strauss' ``Salome,'' a lush setting of Oscar Wilde's play, has gotten the stark, German treatment at the Harrison Opera House. The show appeared to be set on a post-apocalyptic fashion planet instead of at the court of the Tetrarch of Judea.
What made the production entertaining was a handful of stirring vocal performances and Virginia Opera's largest orchestra yet.
Soprano Kathleen Broderick had thrilling moments as Salome, the daughter of Herod who gets the head of John the Baptist.
About once a season, Mark hires a director with an Idea. It's someone who either doesn't trust the material, doesn't see the potential of the material, can't get the singers to act or just can't leave well enough alone.
The productions in this category include ``Faust,'' ``The Not Mikado'' and David Gately's Rossini operas in their more slapstick moments.
Vela, a 30-year-old Mexican director making his American debut, took this most perversely sensual of operas and drained it of its juice. The characters stood stiffly on a blank, steeply raked stage. The walls moved more than they did.
And for all his striving toward universality, Vela ultimately made cheesy choices. John the Baptist's head is lopped off not by a soldier but by Salome's mother, Herodias. Likewise, Salome is killed not by soldiers but by her father, Herod.
Before the famous ``Dance of the Seven Veils,'' Salome says, ``I will dance for you, Tetrarch.'' What she meant to say was, ``Tetrarch, I will process slowly over to this square of light while my two assistants behave like synchronized swimmers about to jump in the pool.''
Broderick's success in her role was muted only by the sexless direction and her soft lower register.
Douglas Nagel, lately one of Mark's favorite baritones, seemed more at home as Jokanaan (John the Baptist) than as Don Giovanni or Germont in ``La traviata.'' But he still lacked power.
Tenor Quade Winter treated the pitches of his role, Herod Antipas, cavalierly.
Mezzo Patricia McCaffrey was a chilling Herodias. From his first lines, tenor Michael Lynn Galanter sang easily as the suicidal captain Narraboth.
Standouts among the supporting roles were tenors Kevin Wines and Philip Webb, the First and Fourth Jews, and baritone Richard Lewis, the First Nazarene.
``Salome'' represents perhaps the best match in years between a score and Mark's expressive tendencies.
It surged, pounded and sang, thanks to forceful low brass and passionate upper strings and woodwinds.
Hugh Landwehr's set was an ingenious solution to the problem of putting a cistern for John the Baptist on the shallow Harrison Opera House stage.
Donna Zakowska's costumes included handsome, au courant black suits and gowns with mesh overlays. MEMO: AT A GLANCE
``Salome,'' by Richard Strauss, after the play by Oscar Wilde. In
German, with English supertitles. Virginia Opera production Friday at
the Harrison Opera House, Norfolk. Additional performances at 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 27.
Tickets $12.50 to $60. Call 623-1223. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Kathy Keeney
Herodias, played by Patricia McCaffrey, derides her lecherous
husband, Herod, in Virginia Opera's ``Salome.''
by CNB