On the rocks: An ice-cold Salome in Salzburg

Asmik Grigorian (Salome)

Asmik Grigorian (Salome) and Gábor Bretz (Jochanaan)

John Daszak (Herod), Anna Maria Chiuri (Herodias), Asmik Grigorian (Salome) and ensemble

By Mark Pullinger, 10 August 2018

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“Grigorian's soprano is bright, rippled with steel”

Reviewed at Felsenreitschule, Salzburg on 9 August 2018

Strauss R., Salome (New Production)

Franz Welser-Möst, Conductor

Romeo Castellucci, Director, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Asmik Grigorian, Salome

John Daszak, Herodes

Anna Maria Chiuri, Herodias

Gábor Bretz, Jochanaan

Julian Prégardien, Narraboth

Avery Amereau, Herodias' Page

Matthäus Schmidlechner, 1st Jew

Mathias Frey, 2nd Jew

Patrick Vogel, 3rd Jew

Jörg Schneider, 4th Jew

David Steffens, 5th Jew

Tilmann Rönnebeck, 1st Nazarene

Neven Crnić, 2nd Nazarene

Henning von Schulman, 1st Soldier

Dashon Burton, 2nd Soldier

Cindy Van Acker, Choreography

Vienna Philharmonic

Romeo Castellucci directs a new Pelléas et Mélisande at La Scala

Laura Servidei, 26th April

The Italian director makes his long-awaited Italian operatic debut at the Teatro alla Scala in a production which perfectly mirrors Debussy’s most enigmatic creation.

****1

Straussian pastoral: Daphne at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Elena Luporini, 19th February

Romeo Castellucci's new production of Daphne for the Staatsoper reflects on our relationship with nature, subverting the perspective of Richard Strauss' opera.

***11

Bluebeard as psychothriller in Castellucci's mismatched double bill

George Jahn, 2nd August

Romeo Castellucci's intense production of Bartók's opera reaps its rewards in the performance under Teodor Currentzis, but Carl Orff's opera-oratorio De temporum fine comoedia feels little more than a drab filler.

***11

To die in order to live: Castellucci's Resurrection

Romain Daroles, 4th July

Following his Requiem at the 2019 Aix Festival, Romeo Castellucci surprises us with the purity and humility of his Mahler Second, conducted remarkably by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

****1

A hole in the heart: Salzburg Festival’s new Don Giovanni

Hugo Shirley, 4th August

The pairing of controversial director and bad-boy conductor brings some thrills but the Salzburg Festival's new Don Giovanni proves disappointingly uninvolving.

***11

Castellucci’s makeover of Mozart’s Requiem at the Adelaide Festival

Brian Angus, 28th February

A work designed to be performed in church has become a dramatic music theatre event that captured and held me enthralled throughout in a meditation on both death and life.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

On the rocks: Castellucci delivers an ice-cold Salome in Salzburg