Singers dazzle in Strauss’ dark and forbidding high drama

It might have been bright and sunny outside Perth Concert Hall, but inside it was dark, dark, dark. The darkness came as Opera North presented their current production of Richard Strauss’ Salome. It’s an opera where the atmosphere is one of high drama, a brooding blockbuster of atmospheric tension and just under two hours of riveting and captivating opera. A concert performance it might have been, but who needs sets, costumes and scenery when you have a cast as stellar as Opera North’s current ensemble. It was 24-carat opera gold.

Salome hasn’t been performed in Scotland for a couple of decades but this production made up for lost time in spades. Of a cast of 17, there wasn’t a weakness but of that 17, six major principals stood out, with one in particular sensational. Jennifer Holloway, in the title role, gave a performance of stunning stamina and amazing passion with her final scene probably, or maybe definitely, one of the best operatic performances I’ve witnessed. It’s a role of Wagnerian might, a tour de force and she was magnificent.

But hers wasn’t the only stellar performance. The off-stage bass of Robert Hayward (Jokanaan) proved equally impressive in the flesh and the tenor of Arnold Bezyen (Herod) might have outshone a lesser mortal than Ms Holloway. Katerina Karneus (Herodias) was the only member of the cast I’d heard before so it was no surprise that she contributed in no small way to this fantastic afternoon of opera. Oliver Johnston (Narraboth) and Heather Lowe (Page of Herodias) also deserve special mention.

Strauss’ orchestration is as deep and penetrating as the opera is forbidding. It requires a huge orchestra of symphonic dimensions and boy, did they play their part under the direction of Sir Richard Armstrong. But no matter how good an opera orchestra is, it’s the singers who make or break. Those on stage on Sunday made it an afternoon never to forget.