Dance of the Seven Veils

Dance for him tonight.

And there comes the dance of the seven veils, which brings us almost to the 20th century.

But before we do that, the unnamed bothers me because all we ever hear and know is Salome.

Where does the name Salome for the daughter, the dancer, come from, if not from the Bible, when everything else seems to be pretty accurate?

is a new way of interpreting this historical figure.

Because Herod Antipas comes across a bit like Nero in the old film, where he's like this big, obese, flamboyant guy who doesn't really know about politics, doesn't really care, just loves life too much and gives anything away just for a beautiful woman.

Well, I suppose it's such a salacious story, isn't it? Beautiful young girl, dance of the seven veils, blood and gore and a decapitated head.

In the early 1900s, You could go to an opera about that and say, it's a good biblical story, a good family Bible story.

[laughs]

What, what's that dance that's like Dance of the Seven Veils or something? Has that got anything to do-

Yes

... with headscarves or something? Like, I'm, I like, there's a reference there that I'm going for, and I just dunno what it is.

One such composer was Richard Strauss with his opera Salome.

The music to the opera is nearly atonal and contains the famous Dance of the Seven Veils, which leaves the title character Salome naked by the end of it, and the opera ends with Salome kissing the severed head of John the Baptist.

We'll hear the Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome later this hour.

I'm your host, Denise Finnegan-Hill, and you're listening to Anytime Classical.

Nocturne in F Major by John Field, performed by Pietro Spada.

I'm Joe Immel from Charlotte, Iowa, and WVIK is my NPR station.

Music of Richard Strauss next from his opera Salome, which pushed the boundaries of decorum, both in the music itself and the subject matter.

The music of the opera is nearly atonal and contains the famous dance of the seven veils, leaving the title character Salome naked by the end of the scene.