Salome @ TheSpace at Surgeons Hall

Making Oscar Wilde's controversial tragedy, banned in France where he lived when he wrote it, into a contemporary Rock Opera is certainly a novel idea. This production also has much to recommend it, the music is well varied and well composed, embracing everything from heavy guitars to piano ballad, swooshy synths to orchestral influences, yiddish folk, jazz, rockabilly and even an extremely impressive barbershop piece, delivered harmoniously acappella. Some of the phrasing of the vocal melodies is a little jarring, particularly in some of the early numbers, which lets down an otherwise impressive score, in which certain melodies appear and reappear in a diverse interwoven fabric.

Aspects of the adaptation also leave something to be desired; for example, rather than spirited and impetuous, Salome herself seems overly sweet and innocent. More sad still, much of the climatic material is thrown to the wind. The key moment where Salome first requests the head of John the Baptist is not lifted to the forefront with sufficient force, shock and drama. The dramatic scene which follows continues to lose steam towards an abrupt ending where Salome meets death without having properly lamented her decision to take the life of the man she fell in love with, only to taste bitter rejection. Here we have a good show, with great music and enjoyable performances, yet somewhere inside a truly great one seeks to break out of it.