4/30/2013 Salome: Tawdry, titillating and teutonic! By Danielle D'Ornellas [View the story "Salome: Tawdry, titillating and teutonic!" on Storify] Salome: Tawdry, titillating and teutonic! Hear what critics and audiences are saying about the Canadian Opera Company's production of Strauss's Salome, starring Erika Sunnegårdh, Martin Gantner, Alan Held, Richard Margison, Hanna Schwarz and Nathaniel Peake. Storified by CanadianOperaCompany· Mon, Apr 29 2013 13:22:27 Watch scenes from the opera that is turning everybody's head... Scenes from Salomecanadianopera Salome, 2013Canadian Opera Of course, any Salome rests on the woman singing the title role, and Swedish soprano Sunnegårdh is the performer of your dreams – or maybe nightmares. Svelte, youthful and gamine, she’s a demented, twisted Amélie with a laundry list of fetishes. Her changes from petulant girl to young temptress to full-blown monster are carefully shaded, and she’s as comfortable cavorting around the stage in a nightgown as she is belting out her fierce high notes over the full power of the brilliant COC orchestra." - Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine "Swedish soprano Erika Sunnegårdh gives a breathtaking performance as Salome. The enormous demands Strauss makes never compromise the fullness or beauty of her tone." - Christopher Hoile, Stage Door "Swedish-American soprano Erika Sunnegårdh, in her Toronto début, is fantastic as Salome... Sunnegardh has a voice that won’t quit, an uncanny ability to seamlessy unfurl one of Strauss’s long melodic arcs, and she is an excellent actor, depicting physically everything that we know is going on inside her heart and her head." - John Terauds, Musical Toronto Salome, 2013Canadian Opera "Still, it was Martin Gantner as Jochanaan who dominated the performance. Prophets seldom seem like people in the Bible, but Ganter’s combination of alternately broken and defiant body language with the booming authority of his powerhouse baritone made him entirely convincing. Even when offstage, he was a commanding presence, thanks to video projection that rendered him as a huge, disembodied mouth intoning prophecies." - J.D. Considine, The Globe and Mail Salome, 2013Canadian Opera "Richard Margison in his role debut as Herod sings magnificently and brings out all the complexities that Egoyan has found in the character." - Christopher Hoile, Stage Door "His Herod isn’t a concupiscent despot but a nouveau riche lout, in thrall to his appetites but bored by his riches. Richard Margison, his corpulent physique draped in sweatpants, wife-beater and an oversized tangerine velour robe, was perfect in the role, so fidgety and furtive that you almost wouldn’t notice how effortlessly his authoritative tenor cut through the dense orchestration." - J.D. Considine, The Globe and Mail Salome, 2013Canadian Opera "Hanna Schwarz gives much more life to Herodias than one normally sees. She is fussy, self-important and the only character given to exaggerated gestures. She is clearly outraged that she must be seen to submit to a man she knows is weaker than she is. Although her lines sound a note of constant complaint, Schwarz never loses dark beauty of her lush voice and thereby makes Herodias an even more imposing figure." - Christopher Hoile, Stage Door Salome, 2013Canadian Opera "Look out for Nathaniel Peake, whose firm, focused tenor makes his enraptured captain fully three-dimensional." - Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine "American Nathaniel Peake, the haughty Arturo of Lucia di Lammermoor running in rep with Salome, displays his powerful tenor to great effect as Narraboth." - Christopher Hoile, Stage Door Salomé with @ruhee_ instagram.com/p/YYD0vCGcQX/Jeff D "Under conductor Johannes Debus, the musicians revel in the complex harmonies, which are shimmeringly enticing one moment, repellant the next." - Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine "To hear the opera with the full complement of players is an overwhelming musical experience especially when conductor Johannes Debus and the COC Orchestra have such a magical rapport. Under Debus the orchestra played with impeccable unity, precision and concentration. The delicate internal details were as clear as the score’s grandest, most sweeping statements." - Christopher Hoile, Stage Door Go behind the scenes in our latest Inside Opera video to get a sneak peek at the production. Inside Opera: Salome, Playing with Shadowscanadianopera People were losing their heads before our opening matinee! #Salome opening today @CanadianOpera!Alexander Neef Toi toi toi for all involved in a stellar production of Salome @CanadianOpera today!Rihab Chaieb Opening performance of the COC's production of 'Salome'. Hals- und Beinbruch! It's an amazing show!#OperaNightInCanada @CanadianOperaDoug MacNaughton Today is Salome #1 with @CanadianOpera ! Hope no one loses their head with excitement.Craig Irvin #Salome opens today @CanadianOpera! Beautifully disturbing. #opera #torontoEvan Boyer Opening Salome in 1 hour. This piece is terrifying. Can't wait! @CanadianOperaKeith Hamm Happy Opening of #Salome @CanadianOpera ! Saw preview-amazing production!!Tal Hebdon Orchestea warming up for #Salome @CanadianOpera with @dobbernation pic.twitter.com/EymRWaOW7dSally Hickson Atom Egoyan's Salome (3.0). @CanadianOpera. Looking forward to #CraigIrvin as 1st Nazarene, a man who appreciates #SecondCup coffeeJoel B. Zantingh Forsaking baseball to see the COC’s Salome with @dungeonmap. Wrote a paper on this in university, greatly looking forward to it.Ruhee Dewji #Salome is opening today @CanadianOpera! So excited! 100 minutes of creepy.Timothy Cheung Salomé was in-TENSE. #realisticseveredheadmakeoutJeff D That was an amazing staging of Salome. Right down to the terrifyingly realistic bleeding severed head. Nice one, COC.Ruhee Dewji Great opening of #salome today. Congrats to the cast, crew and orchestra. @CanadianOperaNeil Craighead Sounding wonderful @CanadianOpera for the opening of Salome #offwithhisheadDawn Marie Schlegel salome director atom egoyan bows at @canadianopera instagram.com/p/YZAq_AMO3V/Andrew Dobson Indulged in Atom Egoyan's phenomenol staging of a most disturbing tale of Salome. Well done! @CanadianOperaMata Something v cathartic about the gruesome violence of 'Salome' -unusual Atom Egoyan staging & GREAT orchestra at @CanadianOpera. Review soon.Catherine Kustanczy Strauss + Wilde + Egoyan + @CanadianOpera = one helluva afternoon of visceral, ground-shaking music theatre.Glenn Sumi @CanadianOpera #Salome was a total treatLin Bennett Salome, 2013Canadian Opera Took a long and so-so boring Operabus to see a short and stunning Salome @CanadianOpera. Worth every second. That Egoyan can "paint" a stageLin Bennett I love operas where sociopathic women passionately embrace bloody dismembered body parts. Salome was great! #egoyan #canadianoperacompanyelthionel @TheFullEgoyan I saw Salome today. I thought it was wonderful. I enjoyed it all; from the Sur-titles to the Freudian sub-text.Jack Newman @TheFullEgoyan Again, I enjoyed Salome immensely. Not familiar with the story; a little with the music,I was overwhelmed. Bravo.Jack Newman Salome runs until May 22, 2013 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets can be purchased online at coc.ca or on the phone (416) 363-8231. Looking for more updates? Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, or visit us at coc.ca. Posted in 2012/2013