Salome at the Met

Review here.

Karita Mattila sings and plays Salome to perfection. Just listen to her.


I was surprised when I asked someone if he knew the story of Salome. He didn't. Don't they teach the Bible anymore? Maybe not that story. Today was the "Live at the Met" production of Strauss' Salome. It was incredible. Not as long as some opera but lush music and Ms Mattila was awesome as Salome.

As usual we got to go backstage and see a few things (although not as many as this was a one act with no intermission) and so we waited outside Ms. Mattila's dressing room to watch her come out of the room and say something about "kick ass" and it was just that a Kick ass performance. She was on stage the entire time and the music was not necessarily easy to sing but she made it seem effortless. Right up to the end when King Herod said "Kill the woman" as she was making love to the severed head of John the Baptist I was entranced. You can see an encore performance in High Definition on Wednesday.

The next Met show will be Dr. Atomic about the building of the Atomic Bomb. It is on Saturday November 8. The season schedule is here. And it is interactive so you can get more details about where to see it in your area.

Now this show got me to thinking (dangerous) about the place of women in the Bible. Poor Salome, she is a temptress who doesn't get her way and so asks for John's head. He (of course) is the pure man who resists her until she finally asks the King (a lustful old codger) for John's head. She dances the Dance of the Seven Veils in order to entice him and she gets her way. Then she descends into madness and makes love to the head. How many women in the Bible are temptresses who entice the pure male into falling from his purity and make him fall from his natural state of purity and grace.

I mean is this realistic? I have known a couple of temptresses in my time but I have also known my share of men who aren't pure as the driven snow. And yet in the Bible it seems to me that the women are given the blame for most of the evils of the world. Just another reason to realize that the Bible was written by bunch of control freaks. As I said it is dangerous when I get to thinking. But you might think about it and leave a comment if you have any thoughts.

There are 9 Operas on the agenda this season. I hope I can see most of them. The $20 (old farts) ticket sure beats the $200+ price to see it in New York. But I wish they would serve Wine and Cheese. Thanks for stopping by, ARTYAL, Hugs, j