That was my first encounter with Ursula Schröder-Feinen ... and it was an absolutely great experience. This recording went straight into my extra-Salome-box with my personal 20-best-Salomes (the other box containing somewhat around 80+, mainly - but not only - lesser LIVE & broadcast-recordings. I loved Leif Roar as Jokanaan, Varnay & Kachel (never heard this one either before) really good and Sebastian is one of the most reliable Salome-conductors ever (is there even one place on earth, where he has not conducted this opera?)A bouquet of thanks to Opera Depot ... and an extra-flower to Mr Horstkotte for the full cast list.

RICHARD STRAUSS(1864 – 1949)SALOMEDrama in einem Aufzug. Opus 54Text von Oscar Wilde in der Übersetzung von Hedwig LachmannHerodes Antipas, Tetrarch von Judäa ▫ Jaroslav KachelHerodias, Gemahlin des Tetrarchen ▫ Astrid VarnaySalome, Tochter der Herodias ▫ Ursula Schröder-FeinenJochanaan, der Prophet ▫ Leif Roar Narraboth, der junge Syrier, Hauptmann der Wache ▫ Gyula LittayDer Page der Herodias ▫ Sabine LouisErster Nazarener ▫ Anton DiakovZweiter Nazarener ▫ Jordi ConstantinErster Soldat ▫ Étienne BettensZweiter Soldat ▫ Michel BouvierErster Jude ▫ Willy CaronZweiter Jude ▫ Jaume BaroDritter Jude ▫ Georges MiazzaVierter Jude ▫ Hans WegmannFünfter Jude ▫ Juan CatalaEin Cappadocier ▫ Karel SalabaEin Sklave ▫ Suzanne HeyengOrchestre de la Suisse RomandeGEORGES SÉBASTIANMise en Scène ▫ Jean-Claude RiberGrand Théâtre de Genève ▫ 29 mai 1975

I'm very grateful to Andy at Opera Depot for making so many performances of Ursula Schroder-Feinen available. She was supposed to record Violanta for CBS and Ortrud for Karajan on EMI, both of which went to other sopranos (Marton and Vezjovic respectively) when her voice refused to cooperate.Here she fully justifies her reputation with a very strongly sung Salome. She soars on the top and growls down to the low G-flats very effectively. There is little indication of anything going wrong with her voice just yet. Furthermore she captures Salome's youth and vulnerability as few other Salomes do.Varnay sings Herodias very well and adds lots of demonic laughter and a shocked squawk when Jokanaan's head comes out of the cistern. Kachel's Herodes may be vocally past its prime with some wobbly tone, but he too characterizes well and has a ringing top register. Roar sounds great as the Prophet; he too succumbed to the Bayreuth Bark all too soon. Georg Littay is a sturdy Narraboth. The rest of the cast is not given. Sebastian is a routine conductor, but he gets on with it.The sound is very close broadcast sound, the voices very clearly heard over the orchestra. There is some weird distortion in high, loud passages in the last ten minutes of the opera, but it isn't that bad.Admirers of Schroder-Feinen must get this!

Richard Strauss' prescription for the ideal Salome was famous: a 15-year-old with the voice of an Isolde. Ljuba Welitsch and Maria Cebotari came closest but this broadcast recording makes a strong case for Ursula Schroeder-Feinen to rank among the elite. Not only does she sound very young and sexy but she actually was a stage Isolde, unlike Welitsch or Cebotari. However, compared to those to as well as to Montserrat Caballé, she comes up somewhat lacking in terms of variety of inflection, that which separates the great from the very good. As though to illustrate the difference, Astrid Varnay has so thoroughly mastered Herodias in musical and dramatic terms that no doubt is left as to who wears the pants around the palace. Bleaty, average Jaroslav Kachel (Herod) never stands a chance. Leif Roar is a capital Jochanaan, showing what a handsome voice he had before he embraced the Bayreuth Bark. Georg Littay is also top-drawer as Narraboth: firm of voice, weak of moral fiber. The First Soldier (anon.) is exceptional and deserves a better conductor than Georges Sebastian, who sounds bored with the whole enterprise. Reiner or Kempe he is not, nor even a Berislav Klobucar.

Schröder Feinen réussit bien la combinaison, entre désarroi affectif et sensuel face au refus de Iokanaan et entêtement boudeur après . La voix est encore glorieuse . Varnay toujours irrésistible, Kachel une caractérisation en demi-teinte mais très soigneusement chanté, Roar montre encore ici qu'il n'est pas toujours le hurleur qu'on a dit . Sebastian encore formidable de théâtre et d'équilibres subtils .

This is my favorite opera, and I'm not a huge fan of Ursula Schröder-Feinen (I found her Elektra to be competently sung, but it left me cold in terms of dramatic interpretation). So you can believe me when I say that her performance here is one of the great Salomes on record along with Behrens, Caballe, Welitsch, and Stratas. She never sounds strained or pushed but soars over the orchestra. The top is open and powerful when necessary, but she also has moments of tenderness with high pianissimos. Dramatically she's one of few singers that captures both the youthful innocence and the seductive wickedness of the title character.Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is not as superlative. Leif Roar is a fine if somewhat tenorial Joachanaan, but Jaroslav Kachel is over parted and wobbles his way through the role of Herod.The sound is mostly very good to excellent. There's a little scratchiness like an old LP or tape hiss, but I soon got used to that. Toward the end, there is some distortion on the highest notes. But otherwise, the sonic experience is quite good with little to no crowd noise. If you are a fan of this opera, you will not be disappointed.