OPERATIC SOPRANO'S VIRGIN BAD GIRL; BEHRENS PUTS BOTH BODY AND SOUL INTO LEAD IN L.A. OPERA'S `SALOME'.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

What words best describe a woman who dances nude for her father, causes a beguiled soldier's suicide and demands the severed head of Christianity's first Great Communicator?

Scandalous? Shocking?

Those will do, but soprano Hildegard Behrens suggests a milder term for Salome, the wily princess of Judea: Innocent.

As the German-born singer sees it, Salome is a considerably more complicated and sympathetic figure than the femme fatale made infamous in St. Matthew and St. Mark's gospels.

Yes, she's a killer and a seductress who'll do anything to get what she wants. When the prophet John the Baptist spurns her erotic advances, Salome turns to her father, Herod, to exact a horrifying revenge on the holy man.

But as she's depicted in Richard Strauss' 1905 opera, based on Oscar Wilde's play, Salome also is, well, in over her head.

``I like the idea that she is overwhelmed, and I think in a quite innocent way,'' says Behrens, who'll be performing the title role five times in L.A. Opera's remounting of Sir Peter Hall's 1986 production of ``Salome,'' beginning tonight.

``She's neither a vampire nor a sex maniac; she's a virgin,'' Behrens continues. ``And she sees a perspective; she sees a light in the darkness, and she opens her soul and her body - and not in a sexual way. What she does, she does totally.

``The tragedy lies in the same characteristics which have to do with her youth, which have to do with her being a spoiled princess who is accustomed to getting what she has to have - and that she doesn't feel a part of her rotten, decadent milieu.''

Perhaps it's Behrens' legal training that makes her such an impassioned advocate: She must be the only dramatic soprano with both a prolific recording career and a law degree.

Of course, Behrens isn't the first artist to come to Salome's defense. In his notorious play, Wilde depicted Salome's insatiable appetites not as manifestations of evil but as symptoms of a lonely, single-minded personality in desperate search of love.

``There's a lot of desperation and mourning in that final song'' of Salome's, Behrens says. ``There's nothing left for her. They don't even need to kill her.''

It has become almost a cliche for music writers to refer to Behrens as un-divalike. Indeed, in person she is unfailingly gracious and as eager as an ingenue to explore the psychological nuances of characters she has portrayed scores of times.

Elegantly outfitted in a long brown dress, brocade vest and ankle-high brown boots, the woman conductor Christoph Eschenbach calls ``the greatest singing actress since Maria Callas'' recently discussed L.A. Opera's ``Salome'' during a break in rehearsals.

Behrens says her conception of Salome hasn't really changed since she performed the role at Salzburg in 1977 under conductor Herbert von Karajan in a breakthrough performance that quickly established her as a dramatic soprano of international quality.

But since then, she has performed her share of unorthodox productions, including Houston Opera's 1997 version, directed by filmmaker Atom Egoyan (``The Sweet Hereafter''). In that production, Egoyan decided to turn Salome, her stepfather Herod and her mother Herodias into patients at a futuristic sanitarium, skewed and tilted in a manner befitting ``The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.''

That's by no means the greatest technical challenge Behrens has faced in interpreting the great heroines of Wagner, Mozart, Beethoven, Alban Berg and Strauss. In Sir Peter Hall's 1983 production of Wagner's ``Ring'' cycle at Bayreuth, Germany, Behrens (playing Brunhilde) was obliged to be strapped to the underside of a giant disk that flipped the diva over, face up.

She enjoyed the experience, but now avoids assignments she deems too ``acrobatic.''

About to turn 61, Behrens has confidence in her acting skills to summon Salome's youthful impetuosity and sensuousness. No need to follow the current fashion of ending the Dance of the Seven Veils in the buff, she believes: A body stocking and a good lighting designer are all that's needed.

`It's up to the personal choice of the director and the performer. I personally don't like it (nudity) so much. It leaves less room for the imagination then,'' she says.

``What you learn in technique, in my aesthetics, is that less can be more, and to kind of get rid of unnecessary stuff. And the principle of mind over matter: The clearer it is, the better it projects. And what reaches the audience is your thought. When you have blank moments and don't know what you want to do, I think the audience senses that.''

THE FACTS

What: L.A. Opera's production of ``Salome.''

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Music Center of Los Angeles County, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown.

When: 7:30 tonight, Sunday, Wednesday and Jan. 24 and 27; 1 p.m. Jan. 31.

The stars: Soprano Hildegard Behrens as Salome in all performances except Jan. 31, when the role will be sung by Helen Field.

Tickets: $24 to $135. Call [phone].

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Photo

Photo: `She's neither a vampire nor a sex maniac; she's a virgin. And she sees a perspective; she sees a light in the darkness, and she opens her soul and her body - and not in a sexual way. What she does, she does totally.'

Hildegard Behrens

soprano, on her character in ``Salome''