Salomé Strauss

Teresa Stratas has been called the world's greatest living singing actress, and she is seen and heard at the peak of her powers in the title role of director Götz Friedrich's spine-chilling version of Salome. on of the most highly acclaimed opera films ever made - with Strauss's score in the expert hands of his protégé Karl Böhm, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

This performance of Strauss' opera Salome, recorded in London, but based on an earlier performance at the Salzburg Festival, could be the perfect Salome on DVD for several years to come. In the first place the casting is superb. Malfitano and Terfel as Salome and Jokanaan are not to be surpassed in the next years. Malfitano does the Dance of the Seven Veils herself, which gives the performance an extra thrill. Herod is good too and as a bonus we see Anja Silja as Herodias, a well-known Salome herself in her younger days.

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.

These distinguished recordings featuring star soloists and Leonard Bernstein in some of his favourite repertoire have not been available internationally for several years. Montserrat Caballé is one of the most famous sopranos of our time, while the disc is also a fine memento of the great Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov (1929-2004).

David McVicar’s powerful 2008 production of Strauss's opera – based on a play by Oscar Wilde – takes the controversial and disturbing film 120 Days of Sodom as its visual reference. The action is set in a debauched palace, which has suggestions of Nazi Germany. Strauss’s ravishing and voluptuous score adds to the sexual alchemy that is conjured by an international cast led by Nadja Michael in the title role. Salome is filmed for the big screen with High Definition cameras and recorded in true surround sound.