The Guardian
York Hall, London Directed with gangsterish overtones by Mark Ravenhill, the tempered musical weight of this lean production of the Strauss classic brings greater focus on the roles’ contrasting dramas The programme bills it “Strauss’s MOST DANGEROUS opera”. The company’s website advertises a “20th-century palate cleanser” , which – given the work’s relentless intensity – is presumably a joke, But perhaps they’ve earned it. Strauss’s Salome is the latest venture from Regents Opera, the wildly ambitious fringe company that last year mounted Wagner’s entire Ring cycle in a historic East End boxing venue with an orchestra of only 18 musicians, to against-the-odds critical acclaim . Back in York Hall, Regents Opera has now mustered a 24-piece ensemble. Seated at the far end of the space from most of the audience and playing a custom arrangement by Nigel Shore, the orchestra sounded somewhat defanged. Despite conductor Ben Woodward’s seemingly boundless energy, there was no possibility of capturing Strauss’s most luxuriant string textures with so few players and the contrast between the score’s vast climaxes and its creepiest, emptiest moments was limited. What emerged instead was an unusual degree of clarity – not to mention a built-in balance aid for the singers, who also benefited from a 20-metre head start on the instrumentalists thanks to the runway-style stage protruding through the audience. Continue reading...
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