Cocktail Party Fact: Based upon a brief biblical reference, Salome is never actually mentioned by name in the New Testament, she is only referred to as Herodias’ daughter.

Here’s the plot: Outside the banquet hall of the palace of the Herod Antipas, Narraboth, the captain of the guard watches Princess Salome in the hall. In a cistern, the voice of John the Baptist can be heard prophesying the coming of the Lord. Hearing his voice, Salome comes out of the hall and asks that he be brought up so that she can speak to him. When he emerges, he denounces Herodias, wife of Herod and mother of Salome. Salome, fascinated, wants to kiss him. Narraboth is horrified and stabs himself, John returns to the cistern and Herod asks Salome to dance for him. She won’t until Herod promises to give her whatever she asks for, after which she dances the dance of the seven veils. She then asks for the head of John the Baptist on a silver plate. Herod pleads for anything else, but finally consents. When the head is brought from the cistern, Salome takes the plate and kisses the mouth. Herod, disgusted, orders his soldiers to kill her.

Memorable Melodies: “Dance of the Seven Veils”; Final Scene.

Vital Statistics: Music by Richard Strauss; book by Oscar Wilde, German version by Hedwig Lachmann; first performance at the Hofoper, Dresden, December 9, 1905.

Why See It?: Needless to say, this is pretty racy stuff for 1905. The German public received the opera enthusiastically, and it wasn’t until it crossed the Atlantic that all its problems began. In 1907, at the Metropolitan Opera, Salome made its American debut, and all hell broke loose. The morning after the performance the newspapers demanded that the opera be dropped. Well, you know what they say: no publicity is bad publicity. The management was delighted, as they would no doubt be playing to capacity crowds. It wasn’t until the directors of the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company threatened to cancel their lease that the management withdrew the opera. It was seven years before any Strauss opera was heard again at the Met, and 27 before Salome was performed again. Salome has now gained a strong foothold in the standard repertory, and rightly so. In Salome, Strauss really let himself go and proved a master of orchestration. Quite unlike anything before it, Salome is really a tone poem with human voices as added instruments in the orchestra. The music expresses the decadence of these characters perfectly, and as usual, Strauss is a master of getting the orchestra to create sounds and colors you never knew possible.