By Neal Hayes '10
Production Editor

The new “Metropolitan Opera HD” series is so wild it makes Feb Club seem like Sunday school. In its first installment, a frenzied teenager made love to the severed head of John the Baptist. In the second, a brilliant but conflicted scientist quoted John Donne, Charles Baudelaire, and even Hindu Scripture while he created atomic weaponry that had the power to destroy human civilization.

Until recently, Charlottesville had provided its residents limited access to the exciting world of opera. The biggest show in town was the Ash Lawn Opera which, unfortunately for UVA students, only produces shows in the summer. Thanks to a new broadcasting program, however, Charlottesvillians can experience the finest opera in America at the Paramount Theater.

New York City’s Metropolitan Opera is one of the most prominent arts organizations in the world, and it includes in its annual roster the brightest classical music stars. Seeking to expand its national audience, it began broadcasting its operas live in high definition in movie theaters across the country in 2006. The Paramount Theater on the Downtown Mall is presenting the Met’s 2008-2009 broadcast series, and these shows provide a sample of modern opera at its best.

The first full opera in the HD series was Salome by Richard Strauss. It told the story of Salome, the woman who became obsessed with John the Baptist. When her affection remained unrequited, she seduced King Herod and forced him to bring her John’s head on a platter.

Strauss based his libretto (the words of an opera) for Salome on a German translation of a play of the same name by Oscar Wilde. Wilde’s play notably expanded on the Biblical story by turning the title character into a necrophiliac. This eroticism became the signature element of Strauss’s drama. The opera scandalized audiences at its 1905 premiere, and several scenes continue to disturb modern audiences.

The opera’s musical highlight is the sensuous Dance of the Seven Veils. In this scene, Salome dances for Herod while wearing seven veils, which she removes one by one until she is wearing nothing. This seductive display is almost dignified compared to the later scene in which Salome kisses and fondles John’s decapitated head, an action that inspires a repulsed Herod to call for the girl’s immediate execution.

The opera’s violence and sex are so overwhelming that listeners might be tempted to make the unfortunate mistake of not fully appreciating Salome’s gorgeous music. Classical music neophytes would recognize Strauss as the creator of Also Sprach Zarathustra, the piece at the beginning of the classic Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the composer utilizes the same orchestral and harmonic richness in the opera as in that famous musical tone poem. Salome’s music is bathed in dynamic beauty, moving effortlessly from furious orchestral chords to tender instrumental melodies.

The shining star of the Met’s Salome was Karita Mattila, the world-renowned Finnish soprano who sang the title role. Traditionally, Salome is one of the most challenging operatic roles, since it requires singers not only to sing over Strauss’s raging orchestra but also to dance seductively and even appear naked on stage. Mattila handled all these tasks effortlessly, singing with a gorgeous, full tone while twisting, turning, and writhing across the stage.

In the Met’s second production, Doctor Atomic by John Adams, a man took center stage. That man was J. Robert Oppenheimer as played by the Canadian baritone Gerald Finley. Oppenheimer was the director of the Manhattan Project, and Adams’s opera focuses on the events leading up to the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico.

Finley’s performance bolstered the opera. He delivered the words of an occasionally unwieldy libretto with passion and conviction. In the middle of the opera, he sang the words, “Batter my heart, three person’d God,” from John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV in a show-stopping aria.

Even more compelling than Finley’s voice was Adams’s orchestral score, which was directed by soon-to-be conductor of the New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert. John Adams is one of the most famous and skillful modern American composers, and his score is colorful and vibrant. A child of the ’60s, he blends repetitive instrumental patterns with the rhythmic vitality of jazz and rock.

Unfortunately, the success of an opera depends on more than the composer’s talent. The librettist, Peter Sellars, attempted to portray Oppenheimer’s inner struggle through the words of the scientist’s favorite poets, including Donne and Baudelaire, but the resulting poetic mishmash was occasionally awkward and confusing. The production of the opera was also questionable. Penny Woolcock, who has directed film versions of Adams’s other operas, Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, produced her first opera in Doctor Atomic, and her staging often seemed too cluttered. The Metropolitan Opera deserves credit for scheduling an opera that was written only three years ago, but most people involved with staging the work seem to be still struggling to fully grasp Adams’s difficult new piece.

Law students who have missed this season’s previous shows can still look forward to several more exciting operas, including perennial crowd-pleasers Lucia di Lammermoor and Madama Butterfly. The next opera in the series, Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust, will play this Sunday, November 23 at 1:00 p.m. Berlioz was one of the most famous musical eccentrics, and his most well-known piece, Symphonie Fantastique, depicted the swoon of a lovelorn artist on opium. Anyone curious to hear how that composer gave life to Mephistopheles and his demons should brace themselves and head down to the Paramount for an afternoon of world-class music.