Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Karita Mattila in Salome at the Met

Salome was an hour and forty minutes of lush and intense musical drama. Karita Mattila's voice was incredible last night and I was amazed at the strength and volume of it over the very large Met Orchestra and an incredible score. In a word, she was fierce! She's one of those performers who has no fear - either in voice or presence. She did the splits again and her dance of the seven veils provocative and erotic. I enjoyed the entire cast, especially Juha Uusitalo as Jokanaan (John the Baptist) - he looked and sounded the way I thought John should sound and look. The modern dress was interesting and the set was imagined as Casablanca, so Santo Loquasto told Noah (Santo is also set director on A Man for All Seasons). The sand dunes on the set were perfect and reminded me of where I grew up but I wasn't quite as keen on the art deco terrace. Either way, this production is overshadowed by the voices and the music. It's simply gorgeous.





1 comment:

Bob said...

I watched this in HD today. Karita was amazing up close. Sweaty and teary and blood-stained. It was a stunning performance.