Word: jokanaan
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...there was equally fine singing from two other principals. Joel Berglund was magnificent as Jokanaan, the prophet, whom Salome has decapitated in her insane effort to kiss his "ruby-red mouth." And as for Kerslin Thorborg, I only wish she had more to do in her portrayal of Herodias, King Herod's wife. What she did sing was superb...
...orchestration devices which are seldom found in the earlier Italian operas. For example, Strauss makes some use of the "leitmotif," (a melody with a specific connotation) which is so conspicuous in Wagner's operas. One particularly striking example is the theme which usually accompanies the religious statements of Jokanaan, and which later appears greatly distorted, after his decapitation. Another use of this device, combined with an intentional and effectively weird orchestration is found in Salome's several repetitions of the phrase "give me the head of Jokanaan...
...carried the rest of the cast into the spirit of the thing with her: even though some of his voice has gone to Valhalla, Wagnerian Tenor Max Lorenz couldn't have been more convincing as the dissolute, incestuous Herod; and Baritone Joel Berglund, as Jokanaan (John the Baptist), had the starkness of a primitive carving as he hurled his curses on Salome. When the curtain was down, instead of morosely reaching for their coats, the audience stood up and applauded in a 15-minute ovation. Said the Herald Tribune's Virgil Thomson next morning: "One of the great...