This CD of Massenet's HÉRODIADE has only been on sale since 22 November 2024, making it our very latest, brand-new release, which we are delighted to be giving away in our Advent calendar today. If you would like to be among the winners of one of the two CD boxes, please send an e-mail with the subject ‘The 23rd window’ to advent@deutscheoperberlin.de.
Few female figures have inspired the art of the late 19th century as enduringly as the Judean princess Salome, who according to legend was responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist. In France in particular, writers, painters and composers were fascinated by this subject matter and its blend of Orientalism and decadence, of eroticism and opulence. Jules Massenet also took up the subject: however, at the centre of his HÉRODIADE, first performed in Brussels in 1881, is not, as it was a quarter of a century later in Richard Strauss's work, the royal child-woman Salome, but her mother Hérodias, the wife of King Herod. And while Strauss's opera was to become the first major success of the 20th century, Massenet's is a celebration of the grand opera of the 19th century, with pathos, posturing and a Hollywood-style script. With a queen who, out of jealousy, causes the death of her own daughter, a mysterious star diviner, a prophet who is not immune to the feelings of love, a weak-willed ruler and a heroically loving princess, Massenet offers a multitude of striking operatic figures and gives the plot a dazzling ‘colour locale’ by incorporating Hebrew and oriental motifs.
For the concert performance by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the great French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine returned to the house where she celebrated successes as Carmen, Marguerite in LA DAMNATION DE FAUST and, most recently, as Fidès in LE PROPHÈTE. The performances of HÉRODIADE on 15 and 18 June 2023 were recorded.
On this CD, conducted by our First Permanent Guest Conductor Enrique Mazzola, you can hear Etienne Dupuis (Hérode), Clémentine Margaine (Hérodiade), Nicole Car (Salomé), Matthew Polenzani (Jean), Marko Mimica (Ph anuel), Dean Murphy (Vitellius), Kyle Miller (High Priest), Sua Jo (A Young Babylonian), Thomas Cilluffo (Voice from the Temple), the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and our chorus under the direction of Jeremy Bines.
Closing date: 23 December 2024. The winners will be informed by email on 27 December 2024. The CDs will then be sent by post. There is no right of appeal.
