For his captivating one-act opera, Richard Strauss drew upon the eponymous play by Oscar Wilde, which – like the later opera – caused much controversy and scandal for a long time. With SALOME, premiered in Dresden in 1905, Strauss achieved his breakthrough as an opera composer. The work depicts the image of a jaded, morally corrupt society doomed to downfall.
SALOME is based on the biblical story of the destructive Princess Salome, a femme fatale who, as a reward for an erotic dance, demands the severed head of Jochanaan (John the Baptist), her stepfather Herod's prisoner.
The cast is outstanding. Soprano Elza van den Heever, hailing from South Africa, takes on the title role of the lascivious princess with erotic obsessions. She possesses a soft yet powerful voice and effortlessly soars above the orchestra. Baritone Peter Mattei makes his role debut as Jochanaan, captivating with his virile, powerful, and beautiful voice that allows him to imbue the character with vulnerability. Tenor Gerhard Siegel sings a dynamic and devilish Herod, his voice perfectly suited to the king's oscillations between power and powerlessness. Under the assured baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the orchestra showcases its full capabilities in a spectacular fashion.
In his long-overdue Met debut, acclaimed German director Claus Guth stages this SALOME as a psychological thriller, setting it in a black villa at the turn of the 20th century. He focuses on themes of trauma and sexual abuse, telling the backstory of Salome, trapped in the suffocating rules of Victorian society and rigid family structures. The "Dance of the Seven Veils," one of the opera's defining scenes, is often depicted as a striptease. In Guth's version, the dance becomes a moment of reckoning, where seven versions of Salome, representing the character at different stages of her childhood, recount the horrors of her upbringing and years of abuse by Herod.
You can find a trailer for SALOME here.
The 2024/2025 Met season will be broadcast live in over 200 cinemas across Germany and Austria. Tickets are now on sale. For a list of participating theaters and further information, please visit www.metincinema.com.
Upcoming Met Live im Kino screenings:
May 31: Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" (Aigul Akhmetshina, Jack Swanson)
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