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Catherine Malfitano perform the Dance of the Seven Veils
CIt merits just a few lines in the Bible, and they're there to explain the
death of John the Baptist, not the life of a spoilt princess from Judaea.
But it's the story of Salome, who dances the night away for the pleasure of
her stepfather, Herod, and then demands the goriest of prices in return,
that has captured the imagination of artists throughout history.
Yet no version of the story shocked quite as much as Strauss's operatic
adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play. Memorably, he asked for a “16-year-old
with the voice of Isolde”: in other words, a soprano with lungs of steel who
could also act - and dance - like a teenage harlot. But should she really
shed all her seven veils in pursuit of artistic truth? We asked seven
distinguished Salomes to reveal all about the demands of singing opera's
most notorious heroine.
ANJA SILJA
Dubbed the “Shirley Temple of opera”, she made her stage debut aged 15 and
first sang Salome in a production directed by Wieland Wagner, then her
lover, in 1960. She now plays the role of Herodias, Salome's mother.
I was 21 years old when I first sang Salome, and I think the youngest Salome
one can imagine, so I was the closest to the mentality of that personality.
As an adult it is very difficult to portray someone who is so childish, and
is not a sex bomb. She wants the head, she gets the head, and that's the end
of her.
I was a trained ballet dancer but it's very different to do that dance in
public, so I was shy in the beginning. It was something we did as myself,
the pianist and Wieland Wagner - we were the only people who rehearsed it.
The dance is normally a rather silly thing so he made it like a temple
dance.
All the Wieland Wagner productions caused scandals and this one made a lot of
noise wherever we went. It was very stylised, very different, and the first
time that one had [worn] so little on stage! But I was not naked: he and I
didn't believe in total nudity. It doesn't work in opera and theatre, it
only works in movies.
That's the problem with these seductive roles, like Carmen and Lulu. You have
to be it or it doesn't work. They are all written for unconscious sexuality,
and nowadays everyone is so conscious.
HELEN FIELD
The Welsh soprano sang Salome throughout the 1990s. She will reprise the role
next season at Welsh National Opera.
The first time I sang the part was in the Luc Bondy production. It had a well
choreographed dance, which is essential. I remember one production in
Toronto where we had a screen: I slipped behind it and a professional dancer
did the dance - then I slipped out again. Then there were various
productions where it was half a dance, but that's a cop-out.
Some people say that Salome's not been sexy if she hasn't acted like Lolita,
but that's missing the point. I just think she has something, she knows
she's going to get her own way, and the dance is the time she does it. When
I took off all my clothes [at the Los Angeles Opera] I thought no one would
find out about it, and then my mother read about it in The Sun and was
shocked! But if you're convinced it's the right sort of thing in that
production then you do it.
Memorable performances? On one occasion I had the head of one particular
Jochanaan . He must have had a round head because it just wouldn't stay
still and eventually rolled into the pit.
GRACE BUMBRY
She began her career as a mezzo- soprano. Moving to the soprano repertoire,
she first sang Salome in Covent Garden in 1970.
My profession is to sing and to do a dance of about 12 minutes, that's very
demanding - first to remember all the steps and then also to interpret it
tastefully. It was erotic, yes - you do what you can do. When she dances, of
course it is revealing but it is missing the point whether she takes her
clothes off or keeps them on. What is important is how she plays the rest of
the opera.
I was 30 when I sang the role but I didn't give any thought to my age-
otherwise you're going to end up locking yourself out of a lot of roles. I
think the thing that surprised the audience when I sang Salome was that it
was the turning point in my career. The success of the performance told me
that I was correct, and that my voice was in its natural place.
KARITA MATTILA
The Finnish soprano sang Salome in Paris in 2003 before starring in Jürgen
Flimm's production at the Metropolitan in New York, which she recalls here.
I was so fit when I did that Salome: the amount of workouts and massages and
physiotherapy and things that I did was just amazing, but I was having a
ball.
I was worried, of course. You know the dance will be there, which may well end
up with you being a few seconds naked, which happened, but when we started
rehearsing with a choreographer, what he showed me was so convincing. And we
started working on it for four weeks, every day, the dancing process with
two dancers. I remember once worrying to my massage therapist, a lovely
Russian guy. I said to him, “You know I'm so concerned being next to these
handsome beautiful-bodied male dancers.” And he said, “They've seen it all,
don't you worry - they've seen naked bodies all their lives.” I thought this
was such a good remark I stopped worrying!
Of course my brain said ‘yes' it will cause a fuss, but for me the crucial
issue was: can I believe in it? If had been treated like an effect, just for
shock, then it wouldn't have worked.
CATHERINE MALFITANO
The American soprano played Salome at Covent Garden (to Anja Silja's Herodias)
in 1995 and 1997.
I always took the view that Salome was not extraordinary, but what was
extraordinary was her meeting such a man in this very grim atmosphere. Her
heart is made to feel love, and so for me maybe more shocking than the act
she commits at the end of the opera is that she's a loveless child. I really
did want the shock value to be had, but not for its own lurid display.
I did one production, in Berlin, where I took the clothes off, and one where I
didn't [Luc Bondy's], so I covered all the bases! But just because Salome is
dancing the dance of the seven veils, I don't think we have to conclude that
she's naked under those veils.
My four-year-old daughter was my greatest inspiration at the time. At that age
girls love to run around naked. I watched her freedom and sense of not being
aware of her own body, just the total joy of nakedness. And it was a very
liberating moment when I finally took my undergarments off in the first
rehearsal. Most people looking at that would never think my inspiration was
so innocent.
GWYNETH JONES
She won worldwide acclaim for her Wagner and Strauss performances and is
currently singing Herodias at Malmo Opera, Sweden.
My first Salome was in 1970, in Hamburg, in a new production by August
Everding conducted by Karl Bohm. I started the dance in a very traditional
way, with belly-dancer movements, but as it became more and more like
calling to Jochanaan she changed from this young virginal woman and got all
kinds of sexual awakenings.
At first I would wear a beautifully embroidered bikini and later I had a
see-through body stocking. It is more erotic not to take everything off,
particularly with a woman's figure when she starts running around the stage,
then it's better if there's something to keep the body firm. One always
knows that to have a veil over you is much more sexy than baring everything.
JULIA MIGENES
First sang Salome in Maurice Bejart's 1983 Geneva production.
Bejart wanted somebody who could really move on stage. But you can't be part
Puerto-Rican, part-Greek and part-Irish and not be able to sing those sorts
of roles with the energy that's necessary.
All his [Bejart's] movements were very seductive: but in a sensual, childlike
way. I'm 5ft 2in, I was 110 lb [50kg], and I was just able to do all that.
I'm not sexy, but I'm sensual. One is more obvious, with the other you don't
really know what is happening; one is like you're trying, the other one is
not. I don't know if nudity is important or not. When men direct, then any
chance to get the girl to take her clothes off will do. Montserrat Caballe
had seven muumuus on instead of veils and at a certain time in the music one
would come off and by the time it got to the seventh you could almost see
through and you'd be going 'Please God, don't take off the seventh veil!' I
don't know - you can do a lapdance fully clothed, can't you? But the new
Salome [at Covent Garden] will probably be naked, I can't imagine it'd be
very interesting if she wasn't. Now everyone's naked at the drop of a hat.
Salome, Royal Opera House, London WC2 (info.royaloperahouse.org 020-7304 4000)
from Thursday
