HILDEGARD BEHRENS
dramatic soprano

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Hildegard Behrens



Tristan und Isolde



Salome

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The programme featured orchestral excerpts from Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the final scene from Strauss's Salome, the Prelude and "Liebestod" from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, and Strauss' tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra - big works that command big sounds and place big demands on both performers and listeners.

Happily, orchestra and guest soloist, drawing from a rich reservoir of resources most audibly evident in the final concert, obliged - with spectacular results! From the first two-note rumble of Wagner's funeral music for his mythical once-and-future free man (Siegfried) to the enigmatic, serenely muted finale of Strauss' Zoroastrian/Nietzschean superman, the ever-youthful Maestro Salonen summoned his orchestra's magical powers with each sway of the baton.

And Ms. Behrens was resplendent in voice and visage - from the moment she made her way toward center stage, eliciting subdued gasps of "She is so beautiful!" as she deftly stepped into character and became the obsessed young Judean princess, to the way she stood transfigured - a "true Isolde" - as the ethereal lyricism of her luminous "Liebestod" lingered through the final resolution of the Prelude's famous dissonant chord.

To many, the final scene from "Salome" was the programme's high point. It began with an eerie silence broken by the faint rolling of distant drums and the shrill, muffled rasping of a dissonant string.

But not for long. Soon Ms. Behrens was jolting the audience with the first outbursts of Salome's frenzy:

"Es ist kein Laut zu vernehmen. Ich höre nichts...."
(There is no sound to be heard. I hear nothing....)

bidding Herod's soldiers to hurry and serve up John the Baptist's head! Here Salonen, revealing an instinct for drama, strayed from the usual practice of opening the concert version of the final scene with "Ah, du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund küssen lassen, Jochanaan!" (Ah! Thou wouldst not suffer me to kiss thy mouth, Jochanaan!). It turned out to be an inspired departure from convention, heightening the sense of drama from the outset.

And with Ms. Behrens, the singing actress nonpareil of today's operatic stage, virtually transporting the audience to the edge of John the Baptist's cistern, the result was an emotionally riveting performance that became musically flawless as one concert evening rolled into the next and attendance swelled. As one visibly moved concert-goer put it, "I was here last night and the singing was so beautiful; tonight, it was even more beautiful!"

Of the first performance, the LA Times wrote:"... the final scene from Strauss' "Salome," demonstrated no cause for complaint. Behrens commands all the resources of tone, textual identification and probing intelligence this role requires. She delivered the words with pungent articulation and coloration, and with the subtext of madness the character demands.

Behrens, in pacing this performance, went beyond the complicated requirements of Salome's craziness and into the real subject of this monologue: lust that has been satisfied. Horrific or not the young Princess of Judea has got her reward and temporarily revels in it. This performance, authoritatively conducted by Salonen and played expertly, showed all the facets in the great climax."

Praise also came from veteran pre-concert lecturer Eric Bromberger who talked about the high-voltage, high-decibel programme and told his listeners as he spoke of Salome's final scene: "You will not hear Salome's monologue sung more beautifully than you will tonight." He sent them off to the concert hall with this bit of wisdom on how best to enjoy an evening of musical explorations into themes of death (by various means), transfiguration, and the evolution of man: "Listen - not only with your ears, but also with your eyes, your mind and your heart." Heeding the advice, the audience at all three performances surrendered to the demands of the music as they listened in rapt attention and then stood, awed, in thunderous ovation of the musicmakers who gave them a concert to remember. -JB/FanFaire 2001

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