Budget Operas' Pick--Caballe版《莎樂美》（Sony）

以下摘自1969年11月號英國《留聲機》雜誌評鑑Caballe版《莎樂美》首發RCA盤LPs（Erich Leinsdorf指揮London Symphony Orchestra）：

Seven years is a reasonable period for one recording of an opera to hold its own unchallenged in the catalogue. The Sold/ Decca set of Salome didn't by any means go unchallanged on its appearance; there was much grumbling about distorted balance and artificial effect. The "Sonicstage" technique, used to help Georg Solti bring out all the detail in Strauss's score, has certainly helped me, during those seven years, to learn more about it than all the performances I've seen, only less than actual study of the full score. So I for one am glad to have it—it still sounds splendid—yet ready to welcome a strong competitor.

The new RCA version might be regarded as a vehicle for Montserrat Caballe, the popular and gifted Spanish soprano who has specialized in Italian bet canto but who also spent some time in Vienna and made her debut here as the Feldmarschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. Well, her interpretation of the same composer's "16-yearold princess with the voice of an Isolde" (this is Strauss's description) is one of the prime merits of the set. Patriots may like to regard it as a feather in the cap of British musicianship—the orchestra and most of the singers are British (Narraboth, Jokanaan and Herodias are American, the Page is Hungarian). Erich Leinsdorf is American too, though trained in his native Vienna to the authentic Strauss tradition—not, of course, forgetting that the composer came from Munich, wrote Salome in Berlin and gave the premiere to Dresden ; Leinsdorf was 7 when Strauss took over the Vienna State Opera.

I haven't always admired Leinsdorf as a Strauss conductor, but there's no question that he knows all about Salome—its spirit as well as its contents. The RCA recording, spacious and lively in presence, allows him to bring out a good quantity of meaningful detail in this elaborate score, not quite as much as in the Solti but more than one usually hears. I would instance Jokanaan's exit, the temptation of Salome by Herod, the removal of Herod's ring, Salome's conjectures about the feasting of dogs and and birds on the Prophet's head. He gets the best out of the LSO, as a whole and from each department ; their string playing compares well with that of the legendary Vienna Philharmonic on the Decca set, less melting in sweetness but marvellously lustrous and intense, and the horns and trumpets soar with thrilling confidence, especially in the Closing Scene.

企鵝指南：★★★
此版本現列入低價位Sony歌劇殿堂（Opera House）系列。