Rating: 
Summary: Maria steals the show!
Review: Maria Ewing's portrayl of Salome surprised me. In the beginning she irritated me with her swooning style of singing and her german pronunciation. However, she grew into the role and got around even the most difficult parts successfully. She kept the girlish element in her voice prominent, but also played her like a real spoilt girl. I feel though that her direction was too contrived, her movements too static. Michael Devlin's voice is also an acquired taste. The supporting roles were well cast. A worthy choice if compared with the more recent ROH production with Malfitano and Terfel. My top choice is still the production from Berlin with Sinopoli conducting.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful
Review: Miss Ewing in the title role was up the task from beginning to end. There are very very few in opera who can meet the high standards of singing with looks to match. Usually, we will allow them to be only close to the character they play IF their vocal ability is outstanding. But, in Miss Ewing's case, there was no compromise in either area. I can and do cast great prase upon Peter Hall and the rest of the cast, but "Salome" stands or falls on its primary star, and she was exactly that. This DVD Opera is among my most prized, and I have played it for friends to their total joy.
Rating:
Summary: A great Dance of the Seven Veils!
Review: Most opera divas tend to wear a body stocking or similar device to protect their modesty when performing the role of Salome. Not so Ms Ewing! She stands completely naked at the end of her scintilating performance of the Dance of the Seven Veils, a dance I have viewed a number of times with great pleasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Picture quality
Review: This is how Opera should be presented in the 21st Century. Not only great music and voices, but singers who can act and look the part. I have a hundred Opers on DVD, and this is among the top five most requested by friends.
Rating:
Summary: Opera as it should be today
Review: This is how Opera should be presented in the 21st Century. Not only great music and voices, but singers who can act and look the part. I have a hundred Opers on DVD, and this is among the top five most requested by friends.
Rating:
Summary: Picture quality
Review: This tape is "Stereo HiFi" but "mono"acceptable per the sleeve, but in my "mono" VCR it has terrible color streaking, with horizontal red and blue bands flashing. Is it because this is a Kultur product? I have never been satisfied with Kultur tapes over the past 10 years because of poor quality. I should have known better, but didn`t know ahead of time that this was a Kultur product. Live and learn, I guess.
Rating:
Summary: "Salome" (finally) on DVD
Review: When I found out that a version of "Salome" had finally come out on DVD, I became very excited. For one thing, this was one version I didn't already own on videotape. I also wanted to see for myself Maria Ewing's infamous portrayal of Salome, which I had heard quite a bit about. Of course, much of this infamy comes from her willingness to take the "Dance of the Seven Veils" to its logical extreme... without even a flesh-colored body stocking to make it more "acceptable" to staid opera fans. Aside from the obvious tabloid titillation of this aspect of her performance, her singing of the role might seem controversial as well. I will concede that, unlike a diligent opera singer, she doesn't hit all the notes "properly." But then, this ain't bel canto opera. In my opinion, it actually adds an interesting dimension to the role.... rather than going "back" to Richard Wagner, Ewing occasionally takes the role "forward" to Kurt Weill, growling like a cabaret singer, sometimes teetering on the brink of sprechstimme (listen as she waits impatiently for the severed head of Jochanaan, the object of Salome's sexual obsession). As Jochanaan, Michael Devlin looks appropriately emaciated with pale blue body makeup and beyond-waist-length hair, making him resemble that musical anti-Christ Marilyn Manson (even though Strauss actually preceded him in that category by about a century). Devlin's Jochanaan is also more pleading in spreading the gospel than singers in other versions, who make him seem more of a great proclaimer. Nonetheless, he still does come off as fanatical... just with a slightly more hysterical edge than other Jochanaans. Considering the opera's time period, the nods to Aubrey Beardsley and Gustav Klimt in the stage design are very appropriate. I definitely prefer this to Luc Bondy's humorless and snottily spare stage design in the Dohnanyi/Malfitano/Terfel video, which looks like someone set things up for Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" by mistake. And if you want realism, you have it in the deathly pale and bloody severed head that Salome cavorts with in the final scene. The Covent Garden Orchestra under Edward Downes plays quite well. But then, one has to work hard to mess up "Salome" (like making it tamer than it really is). When compared with other versions, however, the orchestra does not attack the "loud" sections with as much verve and flare as others, such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the Sinopoli/Malfitano/Estes video. On the other hand, the orchestra seems more at home in the more waltz-like sections. As the first "Salome" on DVD, this is a very welcome addition to my relatively small DVD collection. Ingenues to the opera should be sufficiently entertained, and there's enough orchestral flare and campy humor to please die-hard "Salome" fans (particularly stepdad Herod's requisite lechery and mama Herodias' Mrs Slocombe-like hairdo). Nevertheless, I still prefer the Sinopoli/Malfitano/Estes video overall. I can only hope that it will also be taken out of VHS limbo soon and placed on DVD.
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