SALOME

It is not the first time that the ensemble of the Hungarian State Opera has come to the Janáček Brno festival. This time, it isn´t with a Janáček production, but with an opera whose time of creation intersects with the time when Janáček was working on his innovatively-styled new opera, Destiny. Just like Janáček with Jenůfa and subsequently Destiny, Richard Strauss also went in a new direction with Salome – that of 20^th century opera.

There is an anecdote about the creation of Strauss´s Salome: apparently, when Strauss saw the play by English playwright Oscar Wilde in Berlin, one of his friends told him: “This would be a good subject for you!” And Strauss replied: “I´m already composing it…” It’s not surprising that the author was intrigued by this play based on an Old Testament story. The atmosphere of the perverted court of the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod, who lives in an incestuous marriage with his brother´s wife and eagerly turns his eyes to his step-daughter Salome, provides many expressive moments for an opera.

Oscar Wild originally wrote Salome for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, but she never appeared in it. The play was published in Paris in 1893 and staged in the same season. In Germany, Salome was played for the first time as late as in 1901, and with great success: the Berlin version by director Max Reinhardt had 200 repeat performances at his Kleines Theater. Richard Strauss became acquainted with the play for the first time in 1902 when the Austrian poet Anton Lindner sent him a copy of the text with an offer to re-write it for Strauss as an opera libretto. The composer was interested, and Lindner immediately sent him the opening scene as a sample. In November 1902, Strauss visited a performance in Berlin. The German translation by Hedwiga Lachmann caught his interest and he decided that Wilde´s text could be set directly to music. Finally, after extensive study and consultation with Romain Rolland, Strauss shortened and simplified certain passages of the play’s original text. Despite thinking intensively about Salome, he didn´t start the composition immediately because he was working on an extensive composition for the orchestra – Symphonia Domestica – at the same time, finishing it in July 1903. He left to conduct in the United States the following year. A large part of Salome was created in the period between his return and June 1905. He used every free moment when he wasn’t conducting to compose, and many musicologists point out that even though his opera is full of violence, the manuscript of the score is calm and pure.

When he had completed Salome, Strauss contacted Ernst von Schuch from Dresden and offered the premiere to him. He reassured the conductor that this time the choral parts were not as difficult as in the opera Feuersnot (which was true, as there are no choral parts in Salome at all). However, the main role and the orchestral part are twice as difficult as in any of his previous operas. Problems occurred during the rehearsals – at the first of these, most of the singers wanted to return their roles. Schuch begged Strauss to postpone the premiere, but the composer pushed his opinion through and Salome had its world premiere in Dresden on 9^th December 1905. It was a huge success, and although the shocked church deplored the immorality of the opera, the work quickly spread to other German theatres. After seeing Salome in Vienna, Gustav Mahler wrote to his wife: “It certainly is a work of genius, very powerful and certainly one of the most important works of our day. A volcano living under a pile of cinders, an underground blaze – not just fireworks!”

With this opera, Richard Strauss became one of the leading representatives of the musical avant-garde. Salome meant a distinct shift from his previous stage works. Its manner of speech is much more adventurous and it remains one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century opera to this day. At the same time, the work is very demanding to perform, and its success depends solely on the singing and also – without a doubt – the acting skills of those playing the main roles – Salome and Herod.

Author: Patricie Částková