Let’s just say that Salome is troubled child in a broken, abusive family situation. Here she is holding the head of John the Baptist right before she makes out with it. The severed head was a present from her stepfather. Salome had requested the head as a reward for stripping naked for her stepfather (Herod) while her mother watched.
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| Deborah Voigt as Salome |
I went to the Washington National Opera tonight to hear Voigt sing the role in this Strauss opera based on the play by Oscar Wilde. I have heard Voigt sing on several ocassions in other places but this was her first time singing with the WNO. Her she is when she is not playing a twisted necrophiliac.
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| Deborah Voigt Photo copyright Dario Acosta |
And she was fantastic tonight. I once drove for five hours to West Virginia to hear her sing. Based on tonight, I would do it again. Such a voice.
The performance was at the Kennedy Center which is a presidential memorial in the guise of a performing arts center. These are fairly bad photos I took on my phone. They mainly show the views from the terraces.
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| That’s the Washington Monument in the distance and the Peace Institute in the right of the mid-ground. |
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| Looking up the Potomac toward Georgetown. That is the National Cathedral you see up on St. Alban’s Hill. |
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| Lincoln Memorial from the roof terrace. |
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| The lower terrace. |
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| This giant bust of Kennedy is kind of growing on me. When I first saw it in 1993 I thought it looked like chopped liver and kept looking for a giant cracker. |
hogglestock 
I am so jealous. One of my favorite operas (what does that say about me?) sung by one of my favorite sopranos.
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I saw brilliant performance of salome a few years ago and didn't want to spoil the memory so I gave away my ticket to this performance to a friend. I heard it was wonderful and now i'm kicking myself!
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Steve: I think this was the 4th time I have seen Salome but the first time I felt like I actually “got it” both musically and dramatically. And of course Ms. Voigt made it special.
Stefan: Your friend sure got lucky!
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I was just getting over the shivers from the severed head and then there was the chopped liver bust! Everything in between was very interesting though…thanks, Thomas.
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LOL! Chopped liver, indeed! :)
Thanks for sharing your pics and experience with us. The pic of the lower terrace instantly transported me to a scene from the West Wing a few years back.
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The photos are fabulous. I was at the Kennedy Center Opera Look-In for children this morning, with a bunch of homeschoolers. Wish we could have heard Voigt!
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