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Massenet: Hérodiade / Gergiev, Domingo, Fleming, Zajick


Release Date: 11/21/1995 
Label:  Sony   Catalog #: 66847   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Jules Massenet
Performer:  Renée Fleming,  Dolora Zajic,  Juan Pons,  Kenneth Cox,   ... 
Conductor:  Valery Gergiev
Orchestra/Ensemble:  San Francisco Opera Orchestra,  San Francisco Opera Chorus
Number of Discs: 2 
Recorded in: Stereo 
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Notes and Editorial Reviews

Domingo’s thrilling performance is all one could wish for.

After languishing in obscurity for the best part of a century, Hérodiade, a version of the Salome story that preceded Strauss’s by 24 years, is enjoying a revival with recent productions in Vienna and San Francisco and two new recordings. As befits this grandest of grand operas, each is starrily cast. Plasson’s interpretation extracts fine, incisive playing from the Toulouse orchestra, has a glorious yet girlish Salomé in Cheryl Studer, an imposing Phanuel in José van Dam and a terrifying, manipulative, lascivious Hérode in Thomas Hampson. But he is let down by Nadine Denize’s unlovely Hérodiade, whose occasional flat notes Read more might be excusable were it not for her strident tone. Ben Heppner’s Jean cannot be faulted technically, but stylistically he is too much of a Heldentenor for this lyric role.

Domingo’s thrilling account for Sony is, in contrast, all one could wish for. His voice may be less burnished than it was, but in this sort of dramatic part, he remains peerless. The chief delight of the Sony set, however, is Gergiev’s fervent conducting; he reveals textures imperceptible under Plasson and injects a foreboding intensity and fire into the score, which he takes at speed, shaving 12 minutes off Plasson’s running time. Gergiev’s cast is also exemplary: Juan Pons (Hérode) and the bass Kenneth Cox (Phanuel) are better contrasted, and no less impressive than Hampson and Van Dam; Dolora Zajick is a more attractive and therefore more complex Hérodiade; and Renée Fleming a lustrous though uncharismatic Salomé. If there’s a snag, it is that the recording is live and has all the attendant disturbances – rustling costumes, interruptive applause, occasionally uneven sound – but they’re a small price to pay for opera this exciting.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 4 (out of 5)

-- BBC Music Magazine
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Works on This Recording

1. Hérodiade by Jules Massenet
Performer:  Renée Fleming (Soprano), Dolora Zajic (Mezzo Soprano), Juan Pons (Baritone),
Kenneth Cox (Bass), Hector Vásquez (Baritone), Placido Domingo (Tenor)
Conductor:  Valery Gergiev
Orchestra/Ensemble:  San Francisco Opera Orchestra,  San Francisco Opera Chorus
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1881; France 
 Date of Recording: 11/1994 
Venue:  Live  War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco 
Language: French 

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