What is a kiss? A blood-red apostrophe between the words sensuality and madness. The Sassari Teatro Comunale staged the "Salome" of excess. Salome exposes her breasts at the end of the Dance of the Seven Veils. There are naked dancers, others in sadomasochistic attire, leather, metal, whips, and chains dangling from the stairs of a stage that Hugo de Ana (also the director) transforms into the interior of a larger cistern containing Jochanaan's prison-cistern. Hence the recommendation not to watch it for minors, which has sparked some controversy.
There is a lot of “exuberance” here, because it is an opera with powerful music and a scabrous theme: Herodias’ daughter falls in love with the prophet Jochanaan and, in order to kiss his mouth, goes so far as to ask her stepfather Herod for his head, who, after the very famous dance (which begins with an aerial dance on a ribbon and ends in a sort of ring), promises her “anything”.
At the same time, the opera that Richard Strauss adapted from Oscar Wilde's poem presents interpretative refinements both in the orchestral score, rich in detail, and on the part of the singers and the director, who require not only great technical expertise but also the ability to find a difficult balance.
The audience applauded the performers and the orchestra at length. The applause was well-deserved, although the impression remained that the transition from very good to excellent was somewhat lacking. De Ana's direction and sets were impactful. The moon dominates the scene and changes color, in keeping with the text. Moscow soprano Anastasia Boldyreva has the appropriate physique, a voluminous voice, and a fitting performance that could have been further enhanced by fine-tuning the nuances. The same goes for Erode, played by Brazilian tenor Ewandro Stenzowski, another foreigner in a cast that also featured Moldovan Roman Ialcic as Jochanaan.
The volumes and visuals are often pushed to the limit, and it wouldn't have hurt to better highlight the sense of disorientation, the poetics that emerge from the madness. The de Carolis orchestra, conducted by Federico Santi, performs admirably, although the limited dimensions of the pit (it could be compared to a cistern given its configuration) prevent the addition of additional musicians, especially strings, to maximize the effect of a highly complex score that plays heavily on the contrast between exasperation and sinuous melodies, giving weight to the percussion and involving certain instruments, such as the double bass, in an unusual way.
