Category:Salome--music (subject)

2008 (Jordan)

2008 (Sweete)

2012 (Lehnhoff)

Works of music on Salome

< Massenet's Hérodiade (1881) -- Strauss's Salome (1905) -- Mariotte's Salome (1908) >

Overview

Salome first emerged as a "singing" character in the tradition of the oratorios since the end of the 17th century. The first oratorio to be recorded as having Salome among its characters is San Giovanni Battista (St John the Baptist / 1675 Stradella / Acciaiuoli), oratorio. In the oratorios the protagonist is John the Baptist and the plot closely follows the biblical narrative.

Among the most celebrated oratorios dealing with the death of John the Baptist is Il Batista (1727 Caldara / Zeno), oratorio, which premiered in Vienna in 1727. It is the first of which the name of the interpreter of Salome is recorded--"Signora Helvertin."

The season of the "biblical" oratorios ended with St John the Baptist (1873 Macfarren / Monk), oratorio. The transition to the opera came with Hérodiade (1881). In Jules Massenet's opera the character of Salome takes central stage and a life of her own but still preserves her "biblical" innocence. In the 1880s Hérodiade" was performed in Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and in 1892 reached New Orleans.

Everything changed in 1896 with the premiere in Paris of Salomé (Salome / 1893 Wilde), play. Salome lost her innocence and became the embodiment of the femme fatale who seduces and destroys her lovers. The "Salomania" spread in every corner of Europe and America.

Based on Wilde's play, Richard Strauss's Salome premiered in Dresden on 9 December 1905 (starring Marie Wittich in the title role). It was an immediate success. In 1906 the opera was performed in a dozen theaters, including Graz, Cologne, Berlin (starring Emmy Destinn), Turin, and Milan (under the direction of Arturo Toscanini). In spite of the composer's invitation to look at the opera as nothing more than "a scherzo with a fatal conclusion," many regarded it as a gruesome middlebrow entertainment. When the opera opened at the New York Metropolitan Opera on 22 January 1907, accusations of vulgarity and indecency led to the cancellation of the show and the opera would not be performed again at the Met until 1934. In Austria, Russia and other countries the opera was banned even before being performed.

And yet, Strauss's Salome was an unstoppable success. In March 1907 the French version of the opera premiered in Brussels, of which a scaled-down rendition was also given in Paris a few days before the German version opened there at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 8 May 1907 under the direction of the composer. Aino Ackté played Salome in the 1907 Leipzig premiere as well as in the 1910 London premiere. In spite of the Met's boycott, the Salomania hit New York again at the Manhattan Opera House in 1909 with Mary Garden.

Among the early interpreters of Strauss's Salome are Göta Ljungberg, Maria Jeritza, Maria Cebotari, and Christle Goltz, Probably the most famous of all was the Bulgarian soprano Ljuba Welitsch, who sang it in the presence of the composer at a performance given to mark his 80th birthday in Vienna in 1944.

Strauss's Salome is regularly staged in the major opera theaters and is now available also in numerous sound and video recordings, featuring interpreters such as Birgitt Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, Hildegard Behrens, Montserrat Caballé, Josephine Barstow, Catherine Malfitano, Maria Ewing, Nadja Michael, Karita Mattila and Angela Denoke.

Although overshadowed by Strauss's Salome, Massenet's Hérodiade has not ceased to be performed and recorded, offering the soprano the intriguing possibility to play the same role in two different operas.

@2017 Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan

Performing Salome (vocal)

Bibliography

• Richard Strauss's Salome: which recording is best?