{"id":26888,"date":"2010-06-07T13:29:02","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T18:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newberkshire.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2010-06-07T13:29:02","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T18:29:02","slug":"seiji-ozawa-conducts-salome-at-tanglewood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/seiji-ozawa-conducts-salome-at-tanglewood\/","title":{"rendered":"Seiji Ozawa conducts Salome at Tanglewood"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 4, 2001 Tanglewood concert review by Dave Read<\/a><\/h4>\n

For his Tanglewood swan song as BSO Music Director, Seiji Ozawa<\/strong> chose to conduct Richard Strauss\u2019<\/strong> Salome, Opus 54,<\/em> performed without staging and costumes \u2013 no dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils<\/em>. No matter; Strauss\u2019 music and Oscar Wilde\u2019s<\/strong> poetry, brought to life by the Boston Symphony Orchestra<\/strong> and an impressive cast of vocalists, led by Deborah Voigt<\/strong>, were more than enough to elicit an eruption of applause that lasted well after Maestro Ozawa had scurried off the stage of the Koussevitsky Music Shed<\/strong>. (Photo shows Seiji Ozawa seated behind podium while soloists took their bows.)<\/p>\n

\"Salome<\/a>
Salome Dancing Before Herod, by Gustave Moreau<\/figcaption><\/figure>This was an hour and three-quarters of incomparable aural beauty; a sonic statue sculpted by Ozawa. Whenever anyone present muses on the Maestro\u2019s Tanglewood tenure, this performance should reverberate in memory, as Haiku does. Instead of a set full of scenery and costumes for the singers, they stood on a platform behind the orchestra. The opera\u2019s literary and artistic antecedents include the Gospels of Matthew and Mark<\/strong>, a short story by Gustave Flaubert<\/strong> Herodias<\/em>, and a panoply of paintings, including one by Gustave Moreau<\/strong> that inspired Oscar Wilde.<\/p>\n

With only minimal dramatic action to follow on stage, one was free to focus on Oscar Wilde\u2019s poetry via the supertitles. For example: As soon as Salome\u2019s entreaty to Jokanaan, <\/p>\n

“I am amorous of thy body!… The roses in the garden of the Queen of Arabia are not so white as thy body… Nor the feet of the dawn… Nor the breast of the moon…”<\/em> <\/p>\n

is rebuffed by Jokanaan: “Back daughter of Babylon! By woman came evil into the world…” <\/p>\n

– Salome revises her opinion on his body and shifts her attention to his hair: “Thy body is hideous… It is like a plastered wall where vipers have crawled. It is like a whitened sepulchre full of loathsome things…. It is of thy hair that I am enamored, Jokanaan. Thy hair is like clusters of grapes… The long black nights, when the moon hides her face, when the stars are afraid, are not so black as thy hair.”<\/p>\n

\"Deborah<\/a>Left on the page, such language may look overblown, if descriptive and colorful. Its magic lays in the rhythm, the repartee of the dialogues, the contradictions and emotional swings. In performance, it allows the singers to display the full range of their gifts, as the score does the orchestra. What better choice than Salome as Ozawa\u2019s swan song to Tanglewood!<\/p>\n

It is delicious to speculate on the similies Wilde would draw if he were to describe Ms. Voigt\u2019s performance. She was a commanding and brilliant presence; her performance was a masterpiece, rich as a Michelangelo.<\/p>\n

This was Seiji Ozawa\u2019s good bye to his beloved Tanglewood, delivered with the full vocabulary of music. He spoke no words to the audience \u2013 which would have been as silly as shining neon lights on the Sistene Chapel.<\/p>\n

(Editor’s note:<\/strong> It would be 4 years before James Levine’s Tanglewood debut as BSO Music Director<\/a><\/strong>, with a performance of Mahler’s<\/strong> Symphony No. 8<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Hotels near Tanglewood<\/h2>\n

\"Berkshires<\/a>Find hotels near Tanglewood<\/a><\/strong> with user reviews, check amenities, nearby attractions, availability and then book your room reservations at these lodging establishments through our partner, International Hotel Solutions (IHS), the leading provider of secure online hotel reservations. <\/p>\n

Berkshies transportation<\/h2>\n

For how to get to the Berkshires<\/strong> and public transportation within Berkshire county, see this page: Amtrak and Peter Pan bus schedules<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tanglewood tickets and box office information<\/h2>\n

Tickets for Tanglewood concerts are available through Tanglewood\u2019s website, www.tanglewood.org<\/a>, SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston MA. Download the 2018 Tanglewood season brochure<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 4, 2001 Tanglewood concert review by Dave Read For his Tanglewood swan song as BSO Music Director, Seiji Ozawa chose to conduct Richard Strauss\u2019 Salome, Opus 54, performed without staging and costumes \u2013 no dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils. No matter; Strauss\u2019 music and Oscar Wilde\u2019s poetry, brought to life by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-26888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seiji-ozawa","category-tanglewood-3","tag-2001-tanglewood-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}