Salome
Musical drama in one act by Richard Strauss
Based on Oscar Wilde's composition bearing the same name
1 hour 45 minutes (without intermission)
Debut performance 1905 - Premiere on 10 April 2011
Lust and clammy humidity. Obsessions: the head of a prophet and the body of a daughter. »Salome, Salome, dance for me, I pray thee!«. But the fact that it is blood one has slipped on is a bad omen. The wine has been spilled. Who has killed themselves here? And why? One must not look at her too closely, but must keep one's distance. There's something unearthly about her, something dark - something demonic. She is a girl. »And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee. And the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him.« (The Gospel of Mark) And he swore an oath to her that he would give her anything she desired. But he could not imagine what it was that she wanted. What she demanded far exceeded his imagination. »The head of a man cut from his body is not a pretty sight.« Not even on a silver platter.
Richard Strauss’ Salome, which was first performed in 1905, is a fin-de-siècle piece set in an intoxicating, dissonantly flitting tone. The femme fatale, the whore of Babylon. The entire piece is a somnambulant intoxicant with a positively hypnotic power to pull one in. A kiss which unites the two great themes of the opera: here, love is death. »There was a bitter taste on your lips. Was it the taste of blood? No! Perhaps it is the taste of love...«
Wherefore did I give my oath? Hereafter let no king swear an oath. If he keep it not, it is terrible, and if he keep it, it is terrible also.
Herod in Salome