Salome review: English National Opera's production is psychologically acute but dramaturgically flawed

1/17
Barry Millington1 October 2018

Richard Strauss’s Salome shocked its first audiences and continues to challenge with its probing of transgressive desire. The Australian director Adena Jacobs and designer Marg Horwell demonstrate just how timeless the work’s obsessions are, spotlighting the ogling male gaze and cross-gender sexuality.

Questioning stereotypes of femininity, they string up a colossal version of a pink My Little Pony which is eviscerated, its entrails turning into red roses. Projected close-ups of Jokanaan’s lips (fetishised by Salome) are filmed live by a hand-held camera and the performative aspect of the action emphasised, often clumsily.

Salome’s historical father, another Herod, was imprisoned in the same cistern as Jokanaan, then murdered by Herod Antipas. Salome, lusted after by her stepfather, has good reason to be sexually traumatised and Jacobs tellingly has her enter this flesh-coloured prison. At the climax of the inadequately conceived dance (we don’t need seven veils but we do need something erotic) this Salome removes her wig to reveal a resemblance to the blindfolded boy in a centrally displayed image. We never see the severed head, for Salome an object of pure fantasy.

The production, superbly conducted by Martyn Brabbins, is psychologically acute but dramaturgically flawed with too many characters lacking clear motivation. The composer famously wished for a Salome with the body of a 16-year-old and the voice of an Isolde. Allison Cook unquestionably has the physique du rôle and while lacking the amplitude of an Isolde, gets round the part impressively. Michael Colvin’s decadent Herod is excellent and Salome’s complex relationship with her mother Herodias (Susan Bickley) re-examined.

The less said about the bass David Soar’s unequal battle with the taxing baritonal role of Jokanaan the better.

Until Oct 23 (020 7845 9300, eno.org)