M. Caballe as Salome sings "Final Scene" by Strauss Part 1/2

Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid. May 1979
Montserrat Caballé as Salome, Fritz Uhl as Herodes, Josephine Veasey as Herodias, Julius Rudel conductor

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Opera
• Strauss
• Salome
• Montserrat
• Caballe
• Jokanaan
• Norman
• Bailey
• Fritz
• Uhl
• Josephine
• Veasey

[fierysensual]

PART 3

Montserrat changed my opinion of opera 180 degrees!

hwhap13, I recommend you listen to her Wagner and Strauss recordings BEFORE she was discovered for BEL CANTO by the rest of the world, a last minute substitute for an indisposed Marilyn Horne in a 1965 Lucrezia Borgia production in New York.

Let us not forget FAIRNESS in comparing abilities, like compare a 30 year old with a 30 year old singer.

Montserrat was 46 year old here!

[fierysensual]

PART 2

I have known her only through her countless recordings but I just wish I had the opportunity to hear her in person, like my grandmother did, whose Caballe collections picked my curiosity of opera.

According to my grandma, some of Montserrat's notes were the only one that made her skull vibrate in a pleasant way, which I thought was impossible but years later when my grandmama passed, I read somewhere of one who had the same experience listening to her sing.

[mtrav95]

Opera is a vocalist's medium. The voice is the most important thing. I couldn't care less what a singer looks like so long as they can sing the role There are so many conventionally attractive skinny women who look like Salome but can't sing it. I'll take someone of Caballe's size who can blow me away with her voice over a supermodel who squawks her way through it. If you don't think she looks right for the role, why comment at all? Who cares what you think of Caballe's looks?

[Paddy818]

Fabulous as is her recording of it. A classic! She really could do anything.

[emf1918]

her dance of the seven veils is one of the most hysterical things i've ever seen and i am a huge Caballe fan! but that doesn't matter, she is a singer not a dancer and here we have some of the most beautiful singing and her facial expressions are amazing!

[lucianapb10]

I'm afraid of her !!! how !! SHE ROCKS

[ugolinoandhissons]

I have this fear of someone staging Tosca on a Klingon starship. At the end, instead of jumping off the roof, Tosca blasts herself out an airlock.

[MastersoftheOpera]

I also dont like that you cant really make out the head of John the Baptist. In the other video you can see a severed head in close up

[MastersoftheOpera]

Her voice is terrific for Salome but I much prefer the other video taken from some little known performance made for Spanish television (possibly from the 1970's but before this video) she's absolutely electrifying in that one! I agree the production design on this vid is lousy but the one I'm referring to is a winner in every way including background look. Caballe's greatest role turned out to be Salome who would have thought ? She's great

[tenortobe]

Have you heard her studio recording of this? from the GODS!

[Matt75003]

The singing is FABULOUS. Come on, people, get real: does it get any better? However, the sets and costumes are weirdly inappropriate; the whole thing looks as if Herod's court had been taken over by the Klingon empire.

[mtrav95]

Caballe is easily one of the best interpreters of this role, and it's BECAUSE of her bel canto background. She's acknowledged Strauss as one of her favorites and was a noted Straussian (Arabella, Marschallin, and Salome among the roles she sang). Her recording of Salome is easily one of the best. and she sounds great here even though this was a little after her peak years. Besides, I prefer to warmer Italianate tone to Nilsson's icy blasts. Oh, and you can hear her just fine over the orchestra.