Salome (opera)

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This article is about the opera by Richard Strauss . For other uses, see Salome (disambiguation).

Image:Fremstad Salome 1907.jpg

Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. It was first performed at the Hofoper in Dresden on December 9 1905.

The opera is famous (at the time of its release, infamous) for its Dance of the Seven Veils. Salome is performed frequently and there are various recordings of it.

1 Roles
2 Synopsis
3 The role of Salome
4 The Morphing of Salome From the Bible to Strauss
5 See also

[edit] Roles

		Premiere, December 9, 1905 (Ernst von Schuch)
Herod, Tetrarch of Judaea	tenor	Carl Burrian
Herodias, his wife	mezzo-soprano	Irene von Chavanne
Salome, his step-daughter	soprano	Marie Wittich
Jochanaan, (John the Baptist)	baritone	Karl Perron
Narraboth, Captain of the Guard	tenor
The Page of Herodias	alto
Five Jews	four tenors, one bass
Two Nazarenes	bass, tenor
Two Soldiers	basses
A Cappadocian	bass
A slave	soprano/tenor
Royal guests (Egyptians and Romans), and entourage, servants, soldiers (all silent)

[edit] Synopsis

Time: A moonlit night in the First century AD.

Place: A great terrace in Herod's palace at Tiberias on Lake Galilee, Judea.

Narraboth gazes longingly from the terrace into the banquet hall at the beautiful Princess Salome. The voice of the prophet Jochanaan is heard from his prison in a deep well; Herod fears him.

Salome, tired of the feast and even more tired of its guests, flees to the terrace. Here, she hears Jochanaan cursing her mother, Herodias. Her curiosity is piqued, but the soldiers will not honor her petulant orders to fetch Jochanaan for her. She turns her adolescent feminine wiles towards the Captain of the Guard, and successfully convinces the smitten Narraboth to bring Jochanaan before her. Fascinated by the prophet, Salome is filled with an overwhelming desire to touch him, but he rejects her. She begs for a kiss, and Narraboth, who cannot bear to hear this, kills himself. As Jochanaan is returned to the well, he preaches salvation through the Messiah.

Herod enters, followed by his wife and court. He slips in Narraboth's blood and starts hallucinating. He hears the beating of wings. Despite Herodias' objections, Herod stares lustfully at Salome, who rejects him. Jochanaan harasses Herodias from the well, calling her incestuous marriage to Herod sinful. She demands that Herod silence him. Herod refuses, and she mocks his fear. Five Jews argue concerning the nature of God. Two Nazarenes tell of Christ's miracles; at one point they bring up the raising of Lazarus from the dead, which Herod finds frightening.

Herod asks for Salome to eat with him, drink with him; indolently, she twice refuses, saying she is not hungry or thirsty. Herod then begs Salome to dance for him, Tanz für mich, Salome, though her mother objects. He promises to reward her with her heart's desire — even if it were one-half of his kingdom.

After Salome inquires into his promise, and he swears to honor it, she prepares for the dance. This dance, very oriental in orchestration, has her slowly removing her seven veils, one by one, until she lies naked at his feet. Salome then demands the head of the prophet on a silver platter. Her mother cackles in pleasure. After Herod cannot dissuade her with an offer of jewels, rare birds, or even the sacred veil of the Temple, he finally concedes. After an orchestral interlude, the head of the prophet is brought up out of the well and presented to Salome as she requested.

In one of the most voluptuously gorgeous musical love scenes ever written, Salome makes love to the severed head, finally kissing the prophet's lips passionately. The superstitious Herod is horrified. On his order, to a harsh cacophony, his soldiers kill Salome.

A brief stunned silence usually follows curtain-fall.

[edit] The role of Salome

The vocal demands are the same as those of an Isolde or Brünnhilde, with the impossible demand that she should look and behave like a sixteen-year-old prima ballerina. Few are vocally capable of the role. Ljuba Welitsch, Birgit Nilsson, Montserrat Caballé and Karita Mattila are among the most memorable of the last half-century.

Most sopranos playing the role of Salome ignore Wilde's direction that at the end of the Dance of the Seven Veils Salome lies naked at Herod's feet: in general, by wearing a body stocking under the seven veils. One American soprano, Maria Ewing, followed Wilde to the letter and wore nothing under the seventh veil.

[edit] The Morphing of Salome From the Bible to Strauss

One single story has captured our attention for two thousand years now. It has intrigued, enlightened, and inspired everyone from sculptors to composers even creating obsessions for some. It is the story of Salome, but has this always truly been her tale? In the earliest versions she is barely mentioned and this somehow morphs into her taking over the story to become the title character. How did this happen? Through the years of changing literary and art mediums that became obsessed with this story who decided or discovered and dispersed the sexual prowess and power that this woman had?

The first story of Salome was barely her story at all. It was a story of John the Baptist, and Herodias and was found by the Black Sea dating from the sixth century. It was the Gospel of Saint Matthew. This describes the death of John the Baptist as a story of revenge. This revenge does not come from Salome as the most recent stories tell but from her Mother Herodias. According to Mathew Herodias was married to Philip and had a daughter who they named Salome. Herodias ended up divorcing Philip and married his brother Herod. Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist after John told Herod “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brothers wife.” This is what caused Herodias’ anger against John. Herodias wanted to kill John but her husband Herod refused. Herod was afraid of John and all the power he had. He had witnessed and been told of John doing and saying many things leading Herod to believe John was a Holy man. Herod continued to hold John prisoners and held a great feast for his birthday. His step-daughter Salome came in and danced for Herod which pleased him very much. Herod told Salome that he would give her anything she desired up to half of his kingdom. Not knowing what to ask for she went to her mother who demanded she ask for John the Baptist’s head. Complying with her mother she returns to Herod and asks for this favor. Even though the king was frightened to do so he was a man of his word and complied with Salome’s request. An executioner was immediately sent to John’s prison where he was beheaded. The head was brought to Salome on a charger. Salome immediately gave the head to her mother.

There are certain aspects of this story that have been researched and were proven factual. First off, these people did exist. They were local Palestinian Governors during the beginning years of the Roman Empire. Herod Antipas and his brother Herod Philip were the sons of Herod the great. Philip and Herodias were married but were soon divorced and Herodias married Philip’s Brother Herod Antipas. Many people were upset by this marriage and enemies were gained. The only other known fact of this story is that Herod captured, imprisoned, and subsequently executed John the Baptist. Having these factual structures to this story without any details to connect them leaves plenty of room for people to interpret the story in their own fashion.

One of the most famous of these interpretations is Richard Strauss’ opera Salome. The libretto was translated by Hedwig Lachmann of Oscar Wilde’s play for this opera. The opera opens at Herod’s birthday feast. One of the guests, Captain Narraboth, is taken by Salome’s beauty but the Page who is also the captain’s friend warns him to stay away and the captain will not listen. Narraboth approaches Salome after she leaves the party for the terrace out of boredom. We then hear the voice of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) from the underground prison and he condemns Salome’s mother Herodias and step-father Herod. The soldiers guarding the prison refuse to give in to Salome who has now become intrigued and desperately wants to see him. She asks the captain to bring him to her. He cannot resist her and brings Jokanaan up to her. Salome begins to approach Jokanaan in an erotic manor and he rejects her advances. This makes her try even harder and want him even more. Narraboth tries to calm her down with no luck and eventually kills himself since he cannot win her heart. Herod and Herodias appear and are overwhelmed by the uproar. Herodias demands Jokanaan’s death and Herod tries to create a diversion by asking Salome to dance for him since he is infatuated with her beauty. He promises her anything she wants if she does this. Salome dances the dance of seven veils slowly dropping one veil at a time until she is naked. Thinking only of how Jokanaan refuses her advances she turns to her step-father and asks her Jokanaan’s head. Herod tries to negotiate with Salome since he believes Jokanaan to be a holy man but she will not listen. He gives in since he is a man of his word and presents Salome with Jokanaan’s head on a silver platter. Salome, who at this point is infatuated and obsessed with Jokanaan kisses his lifeless head passionately. Herod bore witness to his daughter’s madness and ordered Salome to be immediately executed as well.

How did this story change so drastically over almost two thousand years? Why was it that the daughter who was barely mentioned and hid behind her mother’s powerful demands was now a sexual, powerful, and cunning character? The story had been passed through many different artists in many different art medias. Authors, painters, sculptors, weavers, and composers just to name a few all tried their hand at presenting the story and as it seemed certain aspects were added and kept until we reached the Strauss opera and the climax of scandal in the Salome story.

Paintings, carvings, manuscripts and stained glass creations of the dancing Salome began to show up after 1000 A.D. in the medieval churches. The earliest of these pieces of artwork simply show the feast and may or may not include Salome standing to the side as the head of John is brought on a platter. The artwork continued in this manor until the sixteenth century. In the later artwork the details of the severed head become more vivid and detailed. Also, Salome begins to be more prominent and is in more sexual poses or clothing. In a church in San Zeno Salome is depicted in the foreground instead of being off to the side in the previous years of art. Also, in this picture Salome is beginning to be more sexual, “Salome executes a back bend worthy of the most limber contortionist.”

Through these changes in artwork the popularity of Salome was not only growing but also more people began to vilify Salome and give her more evil intentions. The Fathers in churches began to preach the story of Salome and elongated the description of the dance to make it immoral so it could be used as a teaching method for their followers. The new story that the church was teaching began to spread and reach more and more artists who continued to put this in their work.

In 1876 Salome took a step back from being put in the lime light of this story. Gustav Flaubert wrote the short story Herodias in which he depicted Salome as she had been previously in the Bible. She was once again hiding behind her mother and following her orders and demands. This story soon became the plot for Jules Massenet’s opera Herodiade.

There is still one large change in the plot of Strauss’ Salome from the biblical story. In all of the artwork and literature there still has been no mention of Salome’s obsession and lust for John the Baptist. This first arises in a poem by Heinrich Heine in 1841 entitled Atta Troll. Oscar Wilde was shown this poem when researching for his play Salome. He agreed that it was a better version of the story and included it in his own work. Salome had once again become the villain of the story who wanted John’s head but it was now because he continually refused her sexual advances towards him. Oscar Wilde, in his play, also cemented the attraction of Herod to his daughter. Not only was the literature changing and accepting these adjustments but the visual arts were as well. The nineteenth century sculptor Alexander Archipenko showed Salome with a look of pure ecstasy on her face embracing the head of John to her cheek. Oscar Wilde was wondering exactly how far he could push the envelope with this story. He had befriended a Guatemalan writer named Gomez Carillo and came to him for advice about Salome’s character. One day Oscar asked, “what do you think- should she be naked? Yes, stark naked, but draped with heavy jingling necklaces, made of precious stones which shimmer in all colors and are warmed on the breast of her amber-colored body. I do not think of her as an unconscious woman, a dumb tool. No, her lips in leonardo’s painting betray her inner cruelty. Her lust must be immeasurable, her perversion boundless. The pearls must stream on her body.” Heeding his friends advice Oscar turned Salome’s dance so it ended in nudity.

Richard Strauss was shown Oscar Wilde’s play Salome and immediately knew he had to set it to music. He did not change the story from Oscar Wilde’s play at all but did however have it translated into German by Hedwig Lachmann. It premiered on December 1905 in Dresden, Germany. Surprisingly, while the previous plays, operas, and artwork were censored this much more scandalous version opened without any problems and was quickly accepted by the people of Dresden.

Salome, one of the most well known characters of all time has morphed and changed drastically throughout the years. She has altered her presence from being a minor character simply obeying her mother to becoming a vengeful seductress who is willing to take someone’s life for not letting her have her own way. She has captured the attention of artist from all genres and become an obsession to some. Her story has been one that has captivated us all for centuries and will continue to be for years to come.