Salome at Opera Australia
“Fortunate to score the amazing Lise Lindstrom in the title role…An overwhelming triumph especially for Lise Lindstrom. Perhaps the greatest Salome opera has ever had.”
“Lise Lindstrom gives a truly remarkable performance as Salome. A true dramatic soprano, on stage for almost the entire opera, her presence is magnetic and compelling, her sense of stillness as affecting as her singing. She dominates the stage seemingly effortlessly as she negotiates the complexities of the Strauss score, both her voice and diction ravishingly clear and controlled throughout.”
“Lise Lindstrom maintained the vocal and psychological arch in her gruelling role as the eponymous princess. Her voice is strong and has the requisite timbre required for such a difficult part.”
“Lise Lindstrom met its exacting demands with power, beauty and credible physicality. She moved from petulant teenager as she rejected Herod’s advances, to her “obstinato” young woman, insisting she will have her way as she asserts Ich will dein mund kussen, Jochanaan (I will kiss your lips Jokanaan) finally realising her ghastly sexual desire. Lindstrom’s Liebestod in the last moments of the opera was a tour de force.”
“Speaking of German opera specialists, American dramatic soprano Lise Lindstrom was a towering Brünnhilde in OA’s 2016 Ring Cycle, and here brings all that fury and fragility to the role of Salome. Across the impressive range it’s a lustrous voice of silvery hues, but with real dramatic heft the right side of cartoonish. She is ice-cold, almost bored by her creepy step-dad and unrequited love, and her duet with the silent severed head in the finale would give any Lucia (di Lammermoor) a run for her money in the madness stakes.”
“American soprano Lise Lindstrom is totally at home with her capricious but determined character, who is just coming to understand the extent of her power. She tackles all of the vocal challenges of the role – from its sparkling top notes to the grumbling, demanding contralto-esque bottom – with both force and nuance. Her final scene, performed with a disturbingly realistic severed head, is a lusty, grotesquely realised breakdown.”
“Her performance is a long crescendo. After pausing for the voiceless dance her demands for Jokanaan’s head open out in ferocity over a range of more than two octaves leading to searing intensity in the final scene. With a strong stage presence of defiant young beauty and seething resentment it is a towering performance.”
“A final word. The force of Lindstrom’s Salome was met not with immediate applause (though there was plenty afterward) but awed, almost shocked murmurs. When an artist can provoke such a reaction in a piece as familiar as this, that’s surely opera at its best.”