This piece was shocking. Honestly, I think I am still processing it.
Gerald Barry is a composer that I haven't heard of before. And as I was browsing what is available in the nearby venues I saw that his 2017 opera Salome was finally being premiered in Magdeburg, given that the premiere was delayed due to Covid. So since it is contemporary classical music, I decided to head to Magdeburg and watch it. Now I am slightly shocked.
My preliminary research mentioned that this would be a shocking and singular work, and not like the typical opera you would see. I think that was actually very accurate. There is no operatic lyricism whatsoever, and the music was surprisingly jarring, and to a certain extent, monotonous. There was a full orchestra, yet it felt like the overall possibilities of the orchestra were not utilised at all. There are many complex and irregular rhythms, and the music would every now and then stop, as silence is also a major factor in the music. Overall, musically, I was surprised, and perhaps, not in a positive way.
The production, on the other hand, was something I enjoyed. I mean, if we look at the original Biblical story, where Salome was a brilliant dancer, and King Herod tells her that she can have whatever she wanted as a reward, and then she requests for the head of John the Baptist, it is a massively absurd story. And this production just pushed the absurdity to the maximum, so to speak. Instead of dancing, Salome types, with a typewriter. Herod wants her to type. She needs to type what he dictates. And apparently she's very good at it. Very good, that she gets a reward. And this is where she asks for someone's head.
Again, it's an absurdist production, and I am still processing it. If I try to look at it from a purely musical perspective, I do not think Barry's musical language is something that I would be further interested in, but if I look at this piece holistically, then I have to say I still enjoyed it, and at the same time, I learned something new about my musical preferences.
