Word: jokanaan
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King Herod's birthday starts all the trouble in the Strauss version of Oscar Wilde's play.' It is at his birthday banquet that Salome suddenly revolts against his slimy glances, goes on to the terrace where John the Baptist (in the Strauss text Jokanaan) is chanting his denunciations from a cistern prison. To see the saint Salome beguiles a young Syrian officer to let him out. John talks about Christ. Salome does not even notice when the Syrian stabs himself. But jittery old Herod steps in the Syrian's blood and Salome must dance...
...floor, reproached the thing gently, sang to it ecstatically. Tenor Max Lorenz was a picture-book Herod instead of the crazy neurasthenic that Wilde and Strauss intended. Dorothee Manski (Herodias) had to pinchhit for Karin Branzell who was taken with gallstones (see col. i). Baritone Friedrich Schorr wore Jokanaan's haircloth shirt, sang resonantly. Tenor Hans Clemens (the Syrian) stabbed himself neatly...
...Salome. The Chip Woman's Fortune, a mild little comedy, is played with extraordinary verisimilitude?with delightful warmth and grace. Salome, of course, is a more pretentious production and not quite such a successful one. Sydney Kirkpatrick made an admirably repulsive Herod and Solomon Bruce as the flea-bitten Jokanaan was noteworthy. Salome (Evelyn Freer) danced circumspectly?in fact she was oddly reminiscent of the Daily Dozen, at times ? but her interview with Jokanaan's removable top was horridly effective...