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Salomé | Classical review

Source: guardian.co.uk Film

Nov 03, 2009

Summary

St George's, Bristol

It's a bold man who commits to writing a score for Alla Nazimova's 1923 silent film Salomé, but composer Charlie Barber never shies away from a challenge. With this touring show, Barber's multimedia outfit Sound Affairs defiantly celebrates its 20th birthday, though modestly declines to note his own 60th.

The film is based on Oscar Wilde's play about the depraved princess who demands of her stepfather, King Herod, the head of the prophet Jokanaan (John the Baptist). Nazimova and her art director, Natacha Rambova, emulated the Aubrey Beardsley illustrations in the first edition of the play, and the result is highly stylised and ornately camp. Eighty-six years on, Barber's new music for the restored film fosters a new appreciation of the work's arthouse values.

Inspired by traditional Arabic percussion ensemble, Barber uses a vast range of instruments, including the metal-framed Egyptian sistrum and the African Djembe drum. Modern scaffolding towers house four percussionists either side of a projection screen, whose complex rhythmic pulses com

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