Memorable and disturbing opera


The sad news comes of the death of the soprano Hildegard Behrens aged 72. She recorded Salome with Herbert von Karajan during my time with EMI, and I was fortunate to hear her sing the role with Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic at the 1977 Salzburg Festival, which was where the header photo was taken. In January 2008 I described that performance as "one of my most memorable, and disturbing, evenings in the opera house".

Image credit Salzburg Festival. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Pliable said…
Related trivia:

- That 1977 production was the first staging of Salome at the Salzburg Festival.

- Hildegard Behrens had a law degree.
6:20 pm
Sergio said…
Still for my money the greatest Salome ever. Her EMI recording with Karajan has no equal.
11:56 pm
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