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Salome and Jokanaan - Cheryl Barker and John Wegner

Opera Australia's much vaunted new production of Richard Strauss' Salome premieres this Friday night at the Sydney Opera House.  The now infamous set by Brian Thompson, with a wall of carcasses has made for good publicity for Gale Edwards' brand new concept of one of opera's most compelling experiences.

Cheryl Barker, without doubt currently Australia's greatest exponent of Strauss' music for soprano makes a welcome Australian role debut, having sung Salome recently with the English National Opera.

After hearing her sing the role of the Marschallin in concert highlights from Der Rosenkavalier with WASO last year, it was obvious to me that she was born to sing Strauss' musical heroines and am very glad to hear she has turned her attention to toward Salome at this stage in her career.  It sounds like the perfect timing of singer with the role.

John Wegner, Jacqueline Dark, John Pickering and David Corcoran take to the stage with Ms Barker in what should be at the very least an interesting piece of operatic performance.  I'm hoping that it will be filmed and screened as part of their popular HD Broadcasts.

More details are are available at the Opera Australia website, and some brilliant production photos, this one included can be seen on their Facebook page.