If the famous Dance of the Seven Veils reveals a dancer’s body, this story of deceit and desperation reveals one dancer’s dark soul. Salome lusts to kiss the prophet John the Baptist. Her stepfather, Herod, lusts to see her dance. When the prophet rejects her, Salome allows Herod to watch her remove her veils. In exchange, she demands that he remove the Baptist’s head. Filled with brooding beauty and Strauss’ evocative music, this thrilling and captivating operatic production is one you won’t want to miss.

Salome will be sung in German with English translations projected above the stage.

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FIRST PERFORMED:

The Hofoper in Dresden, Germany on December 9, 1905.

SOUNDS FAMILIAR:

In Billy Wilder's 1950 classic, "Sunset Boulevard" starring Gloria Swanson, the "Dance of The Seven Veils" is featured, as it is in "Black Widow" (1954) starring Ginger Rogers. Although not part of Salome, Strauss’ symphonic poem “Also Sprach Zarathustra” is one of the most recognizable melodies featured in film, television and advertisements, the most popular example being Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

DID YOU KNOW?

Salome was the most scandalous, sensationalized stage production of Strauss’ era. The premiere was met with riots and protest from the public, various government officials, including Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and the pulpit. In the United States, a Metropolitan Opera production opened one evening and closed the next, in reaction to public outcry. Even today, while the opera is renowned for its artistry, it is noted that a brief, stunned silence usually follows curtain-fall.

At the world premiere in Dresden, the first Salome, Marie Wittich, protested the staging of the infamous "Dance of the Seven Veils." "I won't do it," she exclaimed, "I'm a decent woman." And, for some years after it was traditional for a ballerina to perform the dance role as a double for the principal soprano.

Ever the businessman, Strauss noted that over the next several years, as new productions of Salome continued to open before curious patrons around the globe, the "damage" to his career by the scandal surrounding Salome provided funds to build himself a substantial villa at Garmisch.

Wherever Strauss' artistic aberrations, astronomical earnings and political uncertainties failed to provide sufficient copy for the press, tales of his life with wife, Pauline, filled the gaps. He had met Pauline de Ahna, when she sang under his direction at the opera house in Munich. Reportedly, they argued violently during rehearsals. On one such occasion, Strauss met with Pauline in her dressing room to smooth over the quarrel, and emerged an engaged man.

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