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Published: Wednesday, 22 January 2025 at 11:23 AM

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Massenet
Hérodiade 
Marko Mimica (bass-baritone), Nicole Car (soprano) et al; Deutsche Oper Berlin/Enrique Mazzola
Naxos 8.660540-41   158:29 mins (2CD)

Clip: Massenet: Herodiade – Celui dont la parole efface toutes peines – Il est doux, Il est bon

Small wonder the Paris Opéra rejected Massenet’s Hérodiade in 1881 convinced it would stir up a theological hornet’s nest by suggesting that Princess Salomé’s all too earthly love for the Baptist will take her to heaven. And French conservatives, keen to maintain their doctrinal fences with the Pope would have read the libretto’s distaste for the ‘Roman’ occupation of Herod’s Judea as Republican Gallicanism. Yet the director of the Opéra rightly admired the work. The libretto may be over-perfumed, but the score is irresistibly lush and Massenet knew exactly how to compose a post-Wagnerian Grand Opéra with more than a hint of Verdi’s Don Carlo, premiered in Paris 15 years earlier.

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Berlin’s Deutsche Oper do Massenet proud in this live recording with a top-flight cast. Nicole Car’s Salomé sounds young and lyrical, on the cusp of womanhood, yet a match in vocal power for her John the Baptist in their final duet. As her adored prophet Matthew Polenzani is in fine fettle, riding the high tessitura of the role with ease. The villain of the piece, Clémentine Margaine’s Hérodiade is by turns the jealous wife and the vengeful queen with a vocal heft that would curdle the milk and honey of the promised land. As her drug-sozzled husband Hérod, Etienne Dupuis wheedles around his step daughter as if in the proverbial dirty rain coat.

You forget the Salomé that is to come from Wilde and Strauss as they unwrap Massenet’s soft centred melodies. It’s like stepping into a warm scented bath. Christopher Cook