Salome

The Met has certainly decided to takes its place in the R-rated, youtube generation. First, a shirtless, studly Giovanni humping Anna all over the stage last week and now a nasty Salome grinding her behind into a Hasidic Jew. It sure isn’t your grandparent’s Met, that’s for sure. I’d never actually seen a live performance of Salome, although we studied it at Conservatory, until last night. But nothing can prepare you for the antics of a middle-aged soprano (here, beautifully sung and dynamically acted by Finnish soprano, Karita Mattila) obsess “Fatal Attraction”-style over a Holy Man she can’t have. I don’t think I’ve ever, nor will ever, witness an opera singer extend down into a full split or finger herself while singing. Yes, you read that correctly, finger herself. She also dry humps her uncle, goes “full monty” in the dance of the seven veils and literally dives into a vampiric French kiss with the disembodied head of Jochanaan (the audience audibly gasped at that moment).

Shock value aside, Mattila certainly can sing. A huge voice with a seemingly endless range, she seemed to jump from full-throated top to full-chested bottom within the span of a measure. That b*tch was loud. And unlike other dramatic lyrics, her voice never seemed strident or ugly and she maintained a warm roundness of tone throughout the extreme range of her voice. However, the men (with the exception of tenor, Joseph Kaiser) couldn’t match Mattila’s instrument and were often lost in fuller orchestral moments.

The modern day Middle Eastern setting worked for the most part, hinting at the current world political climate. But the staircase to nowhere on stage right seemed wasted and could have been better utilized for staging. The black-robed angels watching the proceedings from the dunes also seemed like an interesting concept that didn’t seem fully fleshed out. But in spite of these few complaints, it was a truly thrilling, surprising and uncomfortable (in a good way) evening at the opera.

Though this is a revival (from 2004), hopefully the Met will continue producing challenging, innovative productions to balance the popular old warhorses in future seasons. It’s definitely made a difference in audience demographics at the productions I’ve attended. Trish and I both noticed groups of young men (who appeared to be - wait for it…straight!) in the audience at the last several productions we attended. Imagine that, straight young men at the opera. What next, a gay football league?