Diva Voigt sizzles as latest Salome

Richard Strauss changed the world of music when he composed Salome in 1905. Singers and orchestra members shook their heads at its impossible nature, and Strauss dreamed up the most impossible-to-play character in all operadom, Salome.

Whoever plays the teenage whirlwind had to possess the voice of an Isolde, singing tall mountains of notes, and most of all, the stamina to last the course. She also had to act and take all her clothes off!

Strauss based his opera on the story written by Oscar Wilde which was a red-hot retelling of the biblical story with an extra heavy dose of lust and depravity. Salome right from its first performance was problematic.

But revolutionary as the opera was on the surface, the opera falls back on established masculine Victorian morals. Salome has to die, as does Bizet's Carmen, for their sins of assertive sexuality.

Tickets to Lyric's new production of Salome with Deborah Voigt have been selling like hotcakes. There was lots of hype, but could Lyric deliver the goods? Perhaps in some form or other Chicago's first great Salome, Mary Garden, paid Deborah Voigt a visit in her dressing room on opening night and whispered in her ear an encouraging "You go girl, you go!"

She did go and go and go, proving that Voigt is an unbeatable actor and singer, an energetic and unique Diva at the peak of her powers.

Last Sunday's matinee performance found Voigt singing the role of Salome to perfection. Voigt used every trick in the book to make the Dance of the Seven Veils especially exciting. She climbed the walls of a fence like a captive animal, she snaked across the stage on her belly and laid on her back, creating with her seven backup belly dancers, a boiling pot of sensuality.

Voigt with the "head on the platter" was magnificent. Voigt's head buried in the face of Jochanaan to get her denied kisses was made even more dramatic with the use of a left hand that crept into view on the edge of the platter, illustrating the pleasure Salome was feeling from a dead man's lips.

Joseph Kaiser as Narraboth, captain of Herod's guards, has a powerful, clear and fresh voice. He is a charismatic fellow on stage and it was a shame he had to die so early in the opera.Long-time Chicago Lyric star Kim Begley, who has sung six roles here since the 1995-1996 season, was the perfect choice for Herod, Tetrarch of Judea. Herod is pivotal to any good production of Salome, who has to convince the audience of his lustful and weak nature by song and actions and hold his own with the star of the opera. Alan Held as Jochanaan -- John the Baptist -- would probably have stolen the spotlight away from your average Salome.

To assemble such a strong cast and leading lady any time in the near future will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Voices like Voigt are especially hard to find. Score another operatic victory for Lyric Opera.