United Kingdom R. Strauss, Salome: Soloists and Orchestra of Regents Opera / Ben Woodward (conductor), York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, 23.4.2026. (JR)
The story of John the Baptist, Herod, Herodias and Salome stems from the Bible; Heinrich Heine drew on it, as did Gustave Flaubert. But it was Oscar Wilde’s delirious and salacious play that captured Richard Strauss’s imagination; he saw it, translated into German, in 1902. As Alex Ross puts it, in a note in the programme, Schoenberg revered the opera, ‘many of the building blocks of his post-tonal style can be found in Salome’.
Director Mark Ravenhill brought the opera bang up-to-date, as far as possible, with modern costumes. Few props were employed other than a grizzly, bloody head (lots of cranberry juice was used in the performance). Before the opera starts, we are greeted with an on-stage stripper, nipples tassled, and she sets the scene for the entire no-holds barred production. A cleaner is on hand to wipe up the results of a drunken brawl. Far off we hear a raucous ‘Happy Birthday to you, dear Herod’ and the revellers enter, one with wine box in hand. King Herod, in garish party costume, sports a golden, paper birthday party crown. A hooded male figure (Jochanaan) is dragged into the hall and thrown into the cistern. Salome refuses to join in the birthday celebrations and is the object of desire by Narraboth, captain of the King’s Guard. He opens the opera with ‘Wie schön ist die Prinzessin Salome heute Nacht?’ (’Doesn’t Salome look lovely tonight?’ ) and I was immediately struck by the warmth and tone of James Schouten’s voice. He has some Dutch blood and his German diction was, by some measure, the clearest and cleanest on stage. Instead of falling on his sword, when his approaches to Salome are rejected by her, he drinks what looks like industrial cleaner and vomits blood (more cranberry juice). I look forward to hearing Schouten in Katya Kabanova for New Palace Opera in July.
Regents Opera put on six performances of Salome and I caught the last one; Scottish soprano Eleanor Dennis sang in three of them (Kirsty Taylor-Stokes sang the title role in the other three, to fine reviews). I was troubled by some of Dennis’s initial harsh top notes but as the evening wore on, she gained in vocal strength and her final feverish, disturbing address (‘Ah! Ich habe deinen Mund geküsst, Jokanaan’) was chilling and very well executed. Robin Whitehouse, as Herod, came over as quite a strong character, despite his sexual attraction to his stepdaughter; his singing was forthright. I was taken by Welsh/Australian mezzo-soprano Deborah Humble’s lower register yielding a firm Herodias, and note that there were fine reports of Mae Heydorn who shared the role. Joseph Gansert, American baritone, apart from not looking remotely under-nourished, was a sturdy Jochanaan, with good diction. Of the minor parts, the First Jew, Davide Basso, stood out. Otherwise it was hard to distinguish who were the Jews, the Soldiers and the Nazarenes as the costumes were all pretty interchangeable. One singer, Felix Kemp, doubled as a Nazarene and a soldier.
At the end of the opera, Salome is not killed – as commanded by Herod – but she stares imperiously at Herod, who slopes off sheepishly.
An undoubted success was the excellent orchestra, placed high above and behind the stage, so that the soloists needed to keep an eye on the conductor on screens. Conductor Ben Woodward proved a champion of the score and kept the work moving seamlessly, guiding the players expertly through every twist and turn of the opera’s complex music.
These performances by Regents Opera took place in their ‘home’, York Hall in Bethnal Green. The spiritual home of British boxing, there is still, occasionally, a boxing ring and that means that none of the seats are very far from the scene of the action. What one might lack in the finesse and purity of tone of some of the voices, one gains in immediacy and their evident engagement. A tube strike on the evening I attended made access somewhat laborious and time-consuming but it was well worth it for a performance which highlighted the voices and packed a real punch.
Next season Regents Opera puts on Parsifal in March 2027 (David Pountney directing); James Schouten sings the title role, Catherine Woodward as Kundry (in some performances), Oliver Gibbs as Klingsor.
The programme contains adverts for a rarity: Halévy’s The Queen of Spades (Gothic Opera, November 2026) and Die Walküre (Opera Forge, November/December 2026) directed by Sir John Tomlinson and performed at the Battersea Arts Centre; Midsummer Opera (Simon Boccanegra) at the end of June, at St John’s Waterloo, New Palace Opera (see above) and Longborough with four productions. Much opera to seek out and enjoy, even if slightly off the beaten track.
John Rhodes
Featured Image: Joseph Gansert (Jochanaan), Eleanor Dennis (Salome) and James Schouten (front, Narraboth) © Steve Gregson
Cast:
Salome – Eleanor Dennis
Herodes – Robin Whitehouse
Herodias – Deborah Humble
Jochanaan – Joseph Gansert
The Page – Natasha Elliott
Narraboth – James Schouten
First Jew – Davide Basso
Second Jew – Howard Hutt
Third Jew – Jonathan Finney
Fourth Jew – Dominick Felix
Fifth Jew – Andrew Tinkler
First Nazarene – Felix Kemp
Second Nazarene – Adam Sullivan
First Soldier – Felix Kemp
Second Soldier – Jacob Ng
A Cappadocian – Gerard Delrez
A Slave – Annabel Bigland
Production:
Director – Mark Ravenhill
Set and Costume designer – Hannah Schmidt
Lighting designer – Azusa Ono
Choreography – Aletta Collins