Salome in Aachen

I saw this last night and my impressions were generally favourable. The orchestra - sinfonieorchester Aachen - was more than adequate and the venue - rather smaller than your average opera house - was ideal for such a claustrophobic piece. The singing was pretty good - I singled out Bastiaan Everink as Jochanaan for particular praise - though I'm afraid I thought the one weak point was Salome herself, Anne Luenenbuerger, who was too shrill and feeble for my liking. I don't remember noticing this on the webcast so maybe she was just off-form yesterday.

The production was a bit odd, though I seldom let that worry me if the playing and singing are good. Quite what was the point of having Oscar Wilde on stage throughout observing his creation via opera glasses I don't know. Some of the things that struck me will, of course, have been unintentional - the Jews in Jonathan Woss suits & dayglo ties, a Herod who looked like Michael Winner and a Herodias who could have been Amy Winehouse - or, tbf, anyone with a beehive hairdo. But some aspects must have been deliberate. Let's start with Salome herself. She seemed to be wearing cycling shorts and a bra-type top under a peignoir. I've no idea what this was meant to suggest; perhaps an innocent trying to be sexy and getting it hopelessly wrong. Certainly the dance suggested that; there wasn't the slightest hint of eroticism in it except for the seriously transgressive kind displayed when Herod tried to join in. A swing was involved in the action, which rather supports the hypothesis that there was a theme of degraded innocence. The whole thing is further complicated by the fact that Salome is wearing a different outfit - black top with bra straps protruding and long whitish skirt - in the programme photos. The dance itself was rather disappointing. If Ms Luenenbuerger can dance she kept the fact well hidden. As I said earlier it was decidedly - and, I suspect, deliberately unerotic. No clothes came off and the only veil involved was the red one that came from Narraboth's stomach when he killed himself. This had, until Salome began cavorting with it, represented the spilt blood that Herod complains of and would later be used to wrap the severed head.

The Aachen audience clearly enjoyed the show very much. The biggest cheers were, as one might expect, reserved for Salome and Jochanaan; and despite the fact that I thought one was rather more deserving than the other I can't deny that warm applause was well deserved by the whole cast. I squirmed a bit - but only a bit - when Mr Everink, almost with a nod and a wink, planted a juicy smacker on Ms Luenenbuerger's lips. There are several performances to come in this run so anyone who's in the area would, I think, enjoy this production - especially at under €40 for front stalls.

Must dash now - Eurostar beckons;