Final scene from the Opera “Salome”

Ever since its scandalous yet successful premiere at the Dresden Court Opera in 1905, Richard Strauss's one-act opera SALOMÉ has occupied a unique place in opera and music history as one of the most controversially received works, even today. After its first performance, opinions were skeptical and did not predict great interest in the future, but this was soon completely refuted. The opera was a hit in Breslau, but in New York, the "moralists" and purists took it off the stage, while the Austrian premiere at the Graz Opera House was attended by Arnold Schoenberg, Giacomo Puccini, Alban Berg, and Gustav Mahler. Ultimately, it was thanks to the financial gains from the performances of Salome that the composer was able to build his villa in Bavaria in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Richard Strauss created a work that is irresistible and at the same time provokes polar emotions with its mixture of biblical drama, symbolic poetry, and innovative musical solutions. Inspired by Oscar Wilde's 1891 play, the opera's libretto is based on Henry Lachmann's adapted German translation. In this scandalous story, the main character, the stepdaughter of King Herod, is fascinated by the reclusive prophet John (John the Baptist), but he rejects her affection. In a dramatic twist, Salome agrees to perform the famous "Dance of the Seven Veils" before Herod, asking for John's head on a silver platter as a reward. Herod tries to dissuade her with promises of riches, but to no avail, and after Salome's desperate, dramatic monologue, he gives in to her desire. The opera reaches its climax in the final scene, where the distraught Salome sings her declaration of love to John's severed head and kisses his lifeless lips. Horrified, Herod orders his soldiers to kill Salome. Unlike the sublime dénouement in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Salome's death is a psychopathic love death, exceeding the dramatic consequences of words. The orchestra sounds sinister, like the epoch-making dissonance with which Strauss takes Salome... to the depths of degradation, and the quintessence of decadence: here is ecstasy falling in upon itself, crumbling into the abyss (Craig Ayrey). With the desire to be closer to Oscar Wilde's original, in 1907 Richard Strauss created a version of the opera in French, working with Romain Rolland. This also required changes to the score. However, this version is less well known despite its performances.