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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Ever since I saw this magnificent film version of Strauss' SALOME on public television back in the 1970's, it immediately became my favorite opera. I waited for years until it appeared on a DGG LaserDisc and bought it. At that time I copied it to VHS and watched it so many times that it wore out. I then purchased the VHS version, and now plan to purchase it on DVD. It is still the quintessential Salome recording. It is better than any commercial recording of Salome thus far recorded. I own most of the complete studio and live recordings of this opera. The best live Salome of all time was Ljuba Welitsch, and Stratas, who is blessed with a similarly sweet, youthful voice and limitless vocal beauty and intensity, is stunning not only vocally, but visually. I met and spoke with Stratas after a performance of "The Bartered Bride" in Dallas [This was about 1979 or 1980 I believe.] She was incredibly beautiful and kind and I told her that her Salome was stupendous. She said that Karl Bohm's conducting was what really made it a thrilling performance. I agreed since Bohm was one of the greatest, if not the greatest conductor of Strauss' operas. But it was her performance that really sold me on this opera. Astrid Varnay's Herodias is of special interest since she was a great Salome back in the 1950's. Bernd Weikl is a strong and sympathetic Jokanaan, Hans Beier, a very emotional and exciting Herod. Wieslaw Ochmann's Narraboth is the best I've ever heard. This is the greatest film version of an operatic film I've ever seen. Karl Bohm's Elektra with Leonie Rysanek from 1980 is a close second.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is my personal favorites of Salome-performances
The stage and scenery gets me straight into the action.
Karl Boehm and the orchestra sounds really great out of this
complex orchestral score, and some of the details are marvelous.
Teresa Stratas makes an excellent job as Salome.
The acting is very good, and her voice as well.
Its a performance for those who likes effects, and I do think the effects
serve the theme of the opera and its music very well.
The stage and scenery gets me straight into the action.
Karl Boehm and the orchestra sounds really great out of this
complex orchestral score, and some of the details are marvelous.
Teresa Stratas makes an excellent job as Salome.
The acting is very good, and her voice as well.
Its a performance for those who likes effects, and I do think the effects
serve the theme of the opera and its music very well.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Cast (in credits order)
Teresa Stratas ... Salome
Bernd Weikl ... Jochanaan
Astrid Varnay ... Hérodias
Hans Beirer ... Herod
Wieslaw Ochman ... Narraboth
Hanna Schwarz ... Page of Herodias
Kurt Equiluz ... Third Jew
This is possibly the most musically perfect Salome available but as a performance on screen it is patchy.
Shot in the studio, the singers are lousy lip-synchronisers.
But if any DVD were to change my mind about the importance of this, it would be this one, mostly because of the extraordinary performance of a young, stunningly beautiful Teresa Stratas.
Her gradual decline from wilful petulance into obsessed insanity is remarkably vivid and harrowing; add a voice that's vibrant, clear and passionate and a kind of star-quality and you have what may be the perfect performance of the role.
I don't really understand those critics who found her voice too piercing.
The rest of the cast isn't quite up to Ms. Stratas's standards. Bernd Weikl's supremely wild and creepy Jochanaan is vocally very good if not on a par with Bryn Terfel's interpretation.
But Weikl on screen comes over more manic street preacher than divinely inspired prophet.
Yes, Astrid Varnay is a legendary talent, but I wish she and Hans Beirer weren't directed to be the comic relief in distractingly awful costumes (those dilapidated peacock feathers around Herodias's shoulders for example).
Also, I thought that The Dance of the Seven Veils fell slightly flat, with Stratas looking a little too much like ET under the blanket at the start of it and the introduction of some dancing-girl extras in stupid 70s outfits.
The set looks like a prehistoric temple on Malta rather than anything Judaic and the mish-mash costumes are nothing like Beardsley as some would have you believe - so the whole thing seems to be happening nowhere in particular, rather like the androgynous Page in fact.
I was surprised that the revolutionary director Gotz Fiedrich gave us absolutely no blood with the Baptist's severed head,
a chance to shock us even more being missed there perhaps - but none of this matters besides the impact of the music which under Karl Bohm's leadership couldn't get much better.
Teresa Stratas ... Salome
Bernd Weikl ... Jochanaan
Astrid Varnay ... Hérodias
Hans Beirer ... Herod
Wieslaw Ochman ... Narraboth
Hanna Schwarz ... Page of Herodias
Kurt Equiluz ... Third Jew
This is possibly the most musically perfect Salome available but as a performance on screen it is patchy.
Shot in the studio, the singers are lousy lip-synchronisers.
But if any DVD were to change my mind about the importance of this, it would be this one, mostly because of the extraordinary performance of a young, stunningly beautiful Teresa Stratas.
Her gradual decline from wilful petulance into obsessed insanity is remarkably vivid and harrowing; add a voice that's vibrant, clear and passionate and a kind of star-quality and you have what may be the perfect performance of the role.
I don't really understand those critics who found her voice too piercing.
The rest of the cast isn't quite up to Ms. Stratas's standards. Bernd Weikl's supremely wild and creepy Jochanaan is vocally very good if not on a par with Bryn Terfel's interpretation.
But Weikl on screen comes over more manic street preacher than divinely inspired prophet.
Yes, Astrid Varnay is a legendary talent, but I wish she and Hans Beirer weren't directed to be the comic relief in distractingly awful costumes (those dilapidated peacock feathers around Herodias's shoulders for example).
Also, I thought that The Dance of the Seven Veils fell slightly flat, with Stratas looking a little too much like ET under the blanket at the start of it and the introduction of some dancing-girl extras in stupid 70s outfits.
The set looks like a prehistoric temple on Malta rather than anything Judaic and the mish-mash costumes are nothing like Beardsley as some would have you believe - so the whole thing seems to be happening nowhere in particular, rather like the androgynous Page in fact.
I was surprised that the revolutionary director Gotz Fiedrich gave us absolutely no blood with the Baptist's severed head,
a chance to shock us even more being missed there perhaps - but none of this matters besides the impact of the music which under Karl Bohm's leadership couldn't get much better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wonderful.
This is a wonderful filmed opera which I would unhesitatingly recommend. There are one or two oddities, as noted by others. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Giles Penfold
Exellent version
I was tempted into buying this on the other recommendations here and was not disappointed. I put the disc into the player to check it and then was carried away by the sumptuous... Read more
Published 7 months ago by George H
Beautiful
Strauss' Salome isn't an easy piece of music. Not easy to listen too, not easy to watch and definitly not easy to perform. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Camfan in Austria
Salome - Teresa Stratas
Salome is one of my favorite operas. I found Teresa Stratas as Salome captivating, what a wonderful performance.
Published on 10 Sep 2009 by Mr. R. Phillips
A dream come true
This 1974 film version of Strauss' opera is a dream come true as far as being released on DVD. It is probably the best version there is, with all roles being ideally cast. Read more
Published on 22 May 2007 by Robert Petersen
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