SALOME:Strauss
Original Air Date: 03/18/1972
Böhm; Rysanek, Stolze, Dalis, Stewart, MacWherter
SID.18430102
Rysanek’s first Salomes at the Met came after the groundbreaking new production for Nilsson eight years earlier. Longtime Metgoers were still talking about Welitsch from the late 1940s.
My first Salome was the Met on tour with Brenda Lewis, who had broadcast it a few months earlier in February 1962. For my money the Met Salomes are Welitsch, Nilsson, Bumbry, Marton, and Mattila (first season). Rysanek, Silja, G. Jones and Behrens (who has a great studio performance with Karajan) just didn’t make it for me in live performance at the Met.
My memory says that Rysanek was significantly better five years later when Leinsdorf took the reins with Norman Bailey, Astrid Varnay and Ragnar Ulfung; the 1977 performance is available on Met Opera on Demand (MOoD). I will be listening next week to see if my memory of Rysanek is faulty.
The royal couple are distinctively portrayed by Stolze and Dalis (who had premiered the Nilsson production with Liebl). Stolze is on the Nilsson studio recording, and his voice is not for everyone. In this role, it works.
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