*Salome*: May 21, 2025

Stephanie, Susie, and I saw *Salome* on May 21, 2025.

*Salome* has been one of my favorite operas since I was first into opera. It has everything I'm looking for in an opera: amazing music, great opportunities for the singers, and a juicy story to inspire the director and production team. This was a new production for the Met and the house debut of director Claus Guth - - no exaggeration, it was one of my greatest nights at the Met.

It had a startlingly ballsy opening. Guth added a short musical prelude BEFORE the start of the opera. We saw a little blond girl in a black dress laying face down on the floor playing with a doll, also a white video projection of a blond girl twirling around in a spooky way, about two stories tall. The music (added for this production) was one of the major themes from the Dance of the Seven Veils played on a solo toy piano. It was super creepy and perfectly set the tone for the show.

*Salome* is an opera from 1905 by Richard Strauss, adapted from the play by Oscar Wilde. It's the story of a 16-year old girl, Salome, whose mother, Herodias, is the wife of Herod Antipas. Herod has captured John the Baptist and imprisoned him in the basement of his house. Salome hears the voice of J the B and is intrigued by him. She's brought down to visit him - - she professes her love for him and he turns her down. He curses her, to be precise. She goes back upstairs. Her mother and stepfather have arrived from whatever activity is going on in the next room (more about that later). Herod asks Salome to dance for him. She says no until he swears an oath to give her whatever she asks. She dances the Dance of the Seven Veils and asks for the head of J the B on a silver platter. Herod says no but eventually gives in. The end of the opera is basically a solo scene for Salome, pouring out her heartbreak and anger to the head of J the B.

Guth set the opera in a Victorian manor sometime around the turn of the century (19th into 20th). Everything was black and white: black walls, white floor, and the costumes were black and white (with the exception of Salome's mother, who was in squash-colored velvet). The underground prison of J the B was mostly white.

The most impactful element of the production was Guth's use of doubles for Salome. There were six girls/women doubling for her, ranging in age from maybe 6 to early 20s, all costumed alike. The little blonde girls made Stephanie think of *The Bad Seed.* They each appeared onstage, in chronological order, in the first minutes of the opera until the soprano playing Salome, Elza Van den Heever, made her entrance. This was a genius solution for conveying Salome as a teenager. Van den Heever said in an interview that she, a six-foot tall woman in her 40s, would look ridiculous trying to play a teenager - - these doubles did a lot of the work for her. They also wordlessly illustrated the long history of sexual violence between Salome and Herod, possibly also with other men.

The production gave a sense of how shocking this must have been to the 1905 audience. I've seen five other productions of *Salome* and they all saw the sexual decadence as yes, disturbing, but also titillating. In this production it was never titillating, it was only disturbing and upsetting. This was a Salome for the #MeToo generation, a victim who is trying to find her sense of personal agency and power.

One of Guth's inspirations was the creepy Stanley Kubrick movie *Eyes Wide Shut* - - the opera opened with a group of men at the back of the stage, fully clothed, handling a scantily clad woman, all of them wearing large, elaborate black masks. The people at the front of the stage seemed to not notice them, which made it even more creepy. You could imagine a new servant asking another servant what the hell was going on and the more seasoned guy would say, "It's what we call 'Thursday.' "

Can we talk about comedy for a moment? The source is Oscar Wilde so of course there are a few witticisms peppered here and there. It was a surprise to hear the audience laugh out loud, I don't remember that happening in previous productions. Maybe some bemused chuckles but not outright laughter. Van den Heever also earned a few laughs for her adorably goofy and awkward embodiment of a teenage girl.

This production was planned for onetime Met star Anna Netrebko but they did a pivot to Van den Heever when the Met cut ties with Netrebko over her alleged alliance with Vladimir Putin. I can't imagine Netrebko being nearly as committed dramatically as Van den Heever was. The singing would have been wonderful but her performance would not have had the force, the audacity, or the nuance. Van den Heever also sang like a dream. This is one of the most challenging roles in the repertoire, it requires a huge range and great stamina - - Van den Heever never seemed like it was beyond her abilities. We heard her in Strauss's *Die Frau Ohne Schatten* earlier this season, another demanding role. Clearly she's getting her due at the Met. I imagine we might see some Wagner from her in the future.

Baritone Peter Mattei played John the Baptist. His singing was lyrical but still with plenty of heft. Like Van den Heever, he was completely committed to the production. Gerhard Siegel and Michelle DeYoung were Herod and Herodias. Both sang with bite and style and chewed up the scenery big time.

Stephanie saw the concept of this production as part of a larger contemporary movement to reexamine fairy tales. These new versions change the focus or change the ending so the female protagonist shakes off her mantle of victimhood and either escapes or turns the tables on her tormentor. Stephanie was thinking of the Little Match Girl or Bluebeard, I thought of Anne Sexton's *Transformations.* The girl or woman finds her voice, takes control of the narrative, and changes the outcome. The ending of this *Salome* is somewhat ambiguous, it's unclear whether or not Salome comes out of it alive. The way I see it, either way she was able to find her inner power and break out of the cycle of abuse.

The curtain went down and then came up for a solo bow by Van den Heever. This doesn't happen too often but it was totally deserved in this case. The audience went nutso.