Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...The music itself does a number on you, of course, even without McVicar’s horrifyingly maximalist staging. Its seductive chords, its shocking sounds, somehow pierce one’s normal resistance, cutting through snow and ice and whatever else has gummed up one’s works."
Chicago Sun Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...After a 20-year absence, “Salome” returned Sunday to the Lyric Opera of Chicago stage for six performances. The production, first seen at London’s Royal Opera House in 2008, was originally staged by a Lyric favorite, director David McVicar, and it’s a troubled take, one that arguably detracts more than it adds."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...But what makes it all work is Strauss’s innovative score, a turning point in the transition from Romantic to modern opera, with its deeper explorations of human psychology and motives. Strauss employed a huge orchestra and a deft use of dissonance to tell this story; the Lyric Opera Orchestra, under the baton of guest conductor Tomáš Netopil, takes the audience on a thrilling but twisted path to its dark emotional heart."
Talkin Broadway
- Highly Recommended
"...No shortage of artistic energy has been expended on that question, and it's one of the driving forces behind Salome, given an incredible new staging now at the Lyric Opera. One of Richard Strauss's most famous operas, the piece takes biblical characters to ask modern questions about the way our psychology works. In Sir David McVicar's production, restaged here by revival director Julia Burbach, questions of private psychology intersect with political ideology to produce a stunning and unsettling effect."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...Like its source material (Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé), Richard Strauss’ opera Salome has a reputation for being scandalous, decadent, and daring. Unfortunately, Lyric Opera’s new-to-Chicago production is none of the above. This is partly because some elements of the play (premiered in 1896) and opera (premiered in 1905) that were scandalous, decadent, and daring when first staged are no longer so. Yet it is perhaps more so that Original Director Sir David McVicar’s vision for this production is incoherent and uninspiring. Nevertheless, the production remains compelling, more for its talented cast (sans chorus), tremendous orchestra, and haunting score."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...Director David McVicar’s rendition of Salome now onstage at the Lyric is a visually stunning production that fully fleshes out Richard Strauss’s emotionally fraught vision of the Oscar Wilde play. It’s a great opera for newbies: you know the plot and it's less than two hours. It's got everything: tragic deaths, power plays, buckets of blood, a naked man and fantastic music."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...But perhaps the production’s most distinctive moment is the use of the video designs by 59 Studio during the Dance of the Seven Veils, which convey how suffocating and twisted the Royal Family is, even to its own members. Strauss was at the forefront of opera going from being something fun to listen to for escapist fantasy or as background music to something that is challenging, and often jarring. Though it took me a while to warm up to this production, I do recommend it, both as music and as drama."
Chicago Theatre Review
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The grisly final scene and song is powerfully owned by Halloway, she received a spontaneous, and deserved, ovation at the end. All the cast, as can be expected from the Lyric, are excellent musicians and performers. However, the dim stage, stark production and constant presence of the chorus that mostly just stands there, never singing, makes this one hard for someone who isn’t already a fan of Strauss, or Salome, to get lost in the story or the music. If you’ve been curious about McVicar’s vision, it’s worth checking it out, but if you are not familiar with opera, I wouldn’t start here."
Third Coast Review
- Highly Recommended
"...In the Bible, the name of the Princess of Judea is never mentioned. In his 1893 play, Oscar Wilde gave the teenage seductress a name: Salome. In 1905, Richard Strauss completed his opera with his own libretto, based on the German translation of Wilde's play. The Lyric production recreates Sir David McVicar's 2008 production; the thrilling revival is directed by Julia Burbach. Soprano Jennifer Holloway makes her Lyric debut as the obsessed and seductive Salome."`
Chicago On Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...No shortage of artistic energy has been expended on that question, and it’s one of the driving forces behind Salomé, given an incredible new staging now at the Lyric Opera. One of Richard Strauss’s most famous operas, the piece takes biblical characters to ask modern questions about the way our psychology works. In Sir David McVicar’s production, restaged here by revival director Julia Burbach, questions of private psychology intersect with political ideology to produce a stunning and unsettling effect."
PicksInSix
- Highly Recommended
"...Now, after a twenty-year absence, “Salome” returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as provocative as ever. This North American premiere of Sir David McVicar’s production, directed by Julia Burbach, examines greed, lust, delusion, and obsession against a brutalist, raw concrete backdrop in 1930s fascist Italy. This production also marks my very first experience at the opera. What a thrilling and delightfully gory introduction to the art form."
Splash Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...Strauss’s orchestration — once shocking for its chromatic complexity and expressive boldness — still feels fresh, modern, and electrifying. Conductor Tomáš Netopil leads an expanded Lyric Opera Orchestra with uncanny sensitivity to the music’s relentless psychological drama, drawing out both its brutal power and its intimate elegiac moments."
Chicago Classical Review
- Recommended
"...The unsung star of this performance was conductor Tomáš Netopil who was making his Lyric Opera debut. Chief conductor of the National Theatre in Prague since 2010, the Czech conductor led the clearly engaged Lyric Opera Orchestra members (plus extra musicians) in an extraordinary performance of Strauss’s roiling score that moved with crackling momentum and incisive dramatic impact."
NewCity Chicago
- Recommended
"...There is tremendous strength in this cast, starting with Holloway in an exceptionally demanding dramatic role. This is Holloway’s Lyric debut, but the soprano has played Salome before, including at the Vienna State and Berlin State operas. Her voice has the power, range and stamina required for the part, and she’s also a good actress."
