Which opera? All is revealed
OperaNo cheating, please. This show has just opened in a major German house.
No idea? Try this.
Still not?
all photos (c) Monika Ritterhaus, courtesy of the unnamed opera house.
Surely you can recognise the famed soprano?
Revealed: It’s the Hamburg State Opera new Dmitri Tcherniakov production of Salome, starring Asmik Grigorian.
In Germany? I’d never have guessed…
Salomé in Hamburg
Dima repeats himself yet again.
https://www.staatsoper-hamburg.de/de/spielplan/stueck.php?AuffNr=187771
Rosenkavalier??
MITRIDATE, RE DI PONTO Staatsoper Berlin.
Certainly not – the Staatsoper’s Mitridate is all gold everywhere.
Le Nozze di Figaro
I see that the Hamburg State Opera website gives no information about who will be singing in their operas, or the conductor. Only about the stage director. Which says it all really!
try clicking on “further information” and “cast”:
you’ll find the complete production team, conductor and singers with CVs as well as chorus and orchestra for each production.
Salomé évidemment !
Easy. Salome by R.Strauss
The name of the show is in the name of the photos when you click on them… but I like this game! More of this please!
Ooh! Wait!! I know this…
Err…. Così fan Tutte!!!
What do I win????
Try again
Err… no, seriously, I KNOW this… err.. wait.. err… ah! Yes! “La Juive” Halevy???
Whatever the opera, the bloke sitting down admiring the girls underwear looks ridiculous! You wouldn’t catch me doing that on stage.
Entführung???
Only backstage, then?
Jonas: Ever heard of the Dance of the Seven Veils? So, the Prinzessin von Judea (still a minor in today’s world = 16 years old) is doing a lap dance on her pervert-stepfather, in order to get what she wants, the head of the Prophet in a silver plate. So, we get Blasphemy, Depravation, Decadence and Necrophilia.
It was a shocker back in 1905, and it still is almost 120 years later.
Personally I find this production interesting, and the cast looks very promising.
I’m shocked! As I said, I’d never do anything like this on stage. And now I’m led to believe that the singer in the photo is in fact Mr John Daszak, presumably the same John Daszak who gave Così fan Tutte as his first answer earlier in this post! Is this so? Does he not recognize himself? I’m totally confused!
OK…OK… Fair cop! It’s me, yes! I was in this production of Salome in Hamburg. As someone fairly experienced in 20th century music and 20th century productions, I don’t find this version in any way strange. Much less strange than Castellucci’s 2018 production in Salzburg, which I was also in. Much less outrageous than the 2022 production in Paris, which I was also in…
Salome. What else?
It was the birthday party of Herodes 2023 on which his daughter Salome begged for the head of Jochanaan. A modern version of a libretto by Oscar Wilde. An insulting production.
Oh dear… so Salomé cannot be given in a contemporary production?
This is really great acting and singing and a testimony to Wildes and Strauss’ power. It is wonderfully refreshing to see this “biblical” story revived in a comprehensible staging. Excellent!
How is it insulting?
The concept of the original biblical subject is so much stronger than the nowadays nouveau riche setting concept. History helps to fire one’s own imagination. Of course I’ve seen/heard this production!
Yeah, sure… but… again! How is it insulting??
Salome, watch it here https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/115598-000-A/richard-strauss-salome/
Must be Salome, surely.
Female singers need to stop co-operating with this sleaze.
Hansel und Gretel ?
Decadent pseudo-intellectual Eurotrash. I thought this style would already be passé by now. #Steuergeldverschwendung
Salomé has always been an opera that is supposed to be shocking, hence why it played once at the MET and was then banned for 27 years. If we’re talking about it, then the production has, on some level, done its job.
Tame compared to the atrociously violent and sickening production I last saw in Paris. The poor singers…..
It could be worse, it could be La Traviata…
Hansel and Gretel. (The Witch is in a formal black gown; Hansel and Gretel are playing a naughty game).