A Dark Operatic Triumph

A film version of a great opera that realises its creators’ intentions better than any staging has ever done, even in the composer’s lifetime? Ridiculous! Inconceivable! Yes, Franco Zeffirelli’s Otello is great film-making, but the director left out Desdemona’s great aria before the murder because it held up the action; that’s film for you. These objections to the great Franco are worth discussing in the light of the extensive film records that now exist of his stage productions.

In this case the opera is Richard Strauss’s Salome, and the film is the 1974 German television production directed by Götz Friedrich. What is more, the opinion that Strauss’s vision had been realised was that of Karl Böhm, who knew the composer well, and was in the form of a compliment to Teresa Stratas, who played Salome. The legend of this opera film has been around since it was first made and transmitted. It was highly praised by the German critics and some American writers, but for…