Salome
O.Wilde / Hedwig Lachman - R.Strauss & A. Mariotte
Selected for the Prague Quadrennial of scenography and
the exhibition "collaborators" at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London

Set & Costumes........Conor Murphy
Light design........Peter van Praet
Choreography........Ana García
Conductor....Friedemann Layer, Christopher Lee

première: November 2005 Montpellier,France
compamy: Opéra de Montpellier

1st revival: 2 October 2008, LG Arts Centre Seoul
compamy: The National Opera of Korea

 

the double temptation of Salomé
Manuela Uhl dressed in a simple white shift, incarnates this decadent sensuality with a vocal and scenic aplomb that is totally amazing! The temptress moves from the state of a nubile adolescent to a woman that has become aware of her power of seduction over the male sex. After a "dance of the seven veils" a series of sequences that become more and more obscene and provoking. In the face of which, Gerhard Siegel finds in Herod the role of his career, true stage animal not flinching at any outrageousness or absurdity. The deranged Empress - a cross between neurotic Turandot and Cruella -  dismisses him despite herself to the state of an upstart. In this resolutely expressionist universe the quarrel of the Jews made up as blood-red Nosferatus finally reveals the content of the conflict: No one listens to anyone, everyone projects his own sexual fantasies onto Salomé, in total ignorance of the drama that unfolds. Alone, she seeks the "beyond pleasure" which seals her defeat.
At the end of these two great evenings, one remains struck by the burning relevance of the figure of Salomé: expiatory victim or perverse innocent? The question remains open

L`Herault du jour

Salomé without veils and two divas in trance
Carlos Wagner and Conor Murphy have created an extremely strong universe.
Between a moon of death and a cistern from beyond the grave as poetical as the text by Oscar Wilde, here the barbarism is at home. Blood, graffiti, a bestial Herod in furs, a Jochanaan tied to a rope, a Page in a tutu. The red is laid on thick, tenacious; Salomé is a deathly white flower. The libido spreads as in 1905. One doesn't witness the dance of the seven veils, only it's effect, the indecency. And in the caricaturised Jews, one recognizes the anti-Semitism of the pre-war years. Nothing reassures. In turn, the Salomé of Mariotte is, in her cruelty more human. And Salomé dances! What a dance, choreographed by Ana García. No navel-wriggling but an audacious and modest grace, a perverse freshness, a miracle to let it rain, and to get out the parodic umbrellas. In both a communicative trance, of love and madness. A unique sensation.

Midi Libre

Salomé in Montpellier
--- costumes, designed by Conor Murphy (as was the set), that deeply defined these players, on so many levels beyond Wilde's banalities, the amazing Klimt quotations of Herodias, the white feathers cloaking the gold, exposed bloated body of Herod, the red tuxedos of the twisted Jews and Nazarenes, the androgynous Page, murderer of her twin, her/his lover, the Chesterfield boy Narraboth.
Narraboth clutching Salome's green flower, twitching on the sand covered stage, the forbidden sexual object Jochanaan hoisted high above the cistern, the baptism and subsequent drowning of Salome, the masturbation of the Jews and Nazarenes during the blindfolded Salomé's danse manqué, Herodias passing the execution ring to Namaan, the fruit-laden silver platter, the head slung across the stage, unforgettable images indelibly written onto Strauss' blatantly shocking score.

FestivalTour

Salomé at the opéra Berlioz
Boos however, were directed at the staging of Carlos Wagner. No at his perfect direction of the performers, the singers revealed themselves as excellent actors. In question: His decision to transform the soldiers into butchers, the Jews into Punchinellos, in an ambiance of expressionist blood-and-thunder that provoked the conservatives. Take advantage of the last performance and make up your own mind.

Midi Libre

A double Salomé
Risqué but undoubtedly motivating, this mirror-spectacle revealed itself passionately --- The director uses the resources of one single set made up of a monumental staircase and a tower/cistern --- Characters and situation can thus relate to each other, complete each other, reflect on each other, from one show to the other with the piercing effect of a magnifying glass. --- Very remarkable his "dance of the seven veils" transformed into a terrifying blind-man's-buff where she hurtles down the staircase in a life threatening way, a stroke of genius. --- A unique diptych that amply deserves the resources that have been put in.

Scenes Magazine

Opera!
The big news from Montpellier is that there wasn't a veil in sight; in fact there was no dance at all, rather only fleeting glimpses of Salome from time to time. This famous dance became an orgy of sexual anticipation created by the Jews and Nazarenes who had apparently run out of things to say on theological issues. The sexual gestures were sometimes symbolic and sometimes abstract, and always brilliantly graphic. Blatant bad taste was kept at a careful distance.

Var Village Voice