Salome

Feuersnot was first staged at the Dresden Opera on November 21, 1901, under the leadership of Ernst von Zürch, and the consequence was that for years to come, Strauss's operatic premieres took place in that gracious city.

we now come into view of a milestone of modern music drama in nineteen o two strauss attended a performance of oscar wilde's play salome at max reinhold's kleines theater in berlin gertrude eisold had the title role the swiss musicologist willie schuh relates that the composer after the performance was accosted by his friend heinrich greenfeld who remarked strauss this would be an operatic subject for you i am already composing it was the reply and the composer went on to tell the viennese writer anton linder had already sent me the play and offered to make an opera text of it for me upon my agreement he sent me some cleverly versified opening scenes which did not however inspire me with an urge to composition till one day the question shaped itself in my mind why do i not compose at once without further preliminaries be sure it's the princess and from then on it was not difficult to cleanse the piece of literature so that it has become a thoroughly fine libretto necessity gave me a really exotic scheme of harmony which showed itself especially in odd heterogeneous cadences having the effect of changeable silk it was the desire for the sharpest kind of individual characterization that led me to bitonality one can look upon this as a solitary experience as applied in a special case but not recommended for imitation difficulties began with von schuch's first piano rehearsals a number of singers sought to give back their parts till karl bryan shamed them by answering when asked how he was progressing with the role of herod i already know it by heart a little later the salome frau wittlich threatened to go on strike because of the taxing part and the massive orchestra soon too she began to rail against perversity and impiety of the opera refuse to do this or that because i am a decent woman and drove the stage manager almost frantic strauss remarked that her figure was not really suited to the sixteen-year-old princess with the isolde voice and complained that in subsequent performances her dance and her actions with joachimann's head overstepped all bounds of propriety and taste In Berlin, according to Strauss, the Kaiser would permit the performance of the work only after Intendant von Hülsen had the idea of indicating at the close by a sudden shining of the morning star the coming of the three holy kings.

Nevertheless, Wilhelm II remarked to Hülsen, I am sorry that Strauss composed this Salome.

I like him, but he is going to do himself terrible harm with it.

at the dress rehearsal the famous high b flat of the double basses so filled count seebeck with the fear of an outbreak of hilarity that he prevailed upon the player of the english horn to mitigate the effect somewhat by means of a sustained b flat on that instrument strauss's own father hearing his son play a portion of the opera on the piano exclaimed a short time before his death my god this nervous music it is as if beetles were crawling about in one's clothing and Cosima Wagner declared after listening to the closing scene, This is madness! The clergy, too, was up in arms, and the first performance at the Vienna State Opera in October 1918 took place only after an agitated exchange of letters with Archbishop Piffel.

The Orchestra of Salome, in all numbers 112 players, Strauss, however, eventually arranged the opera for fewer players, and Villechoux tells of the composer having conducted it in Innsbruck with an orchestra of only fifty-six players, winds in twos, but highly efficient solo instrumentalists.

At all events Strauss has been described as an inimitable conductor of Salome.

willie shew whom strauss designated late in his life as his official biographer when the time came to prepare his standard life story alludes to strauss as an allegro composer whose direction of salome was of altogether remarkable tranquillity and finds that the real secret of his direction of this music drama was to be sought in the restfulness and creative aspects of his interpretation which avoids every excess of whipped-up overheated effect and sensationalism it is therefore illuminating to consider the modifications the years have wrought on the interpretative treatment proper to the work Little by little the legend of the decadent, hysterical, hypersensual work was replaced by the assurance of its almost classical character, and the truth of Oscar Wilde's declaration to Sarah Bernhardt when the play was new, I aimed only to create something curious and sensual, has at length come to the fore.

She's about to return to Finland for an opening concert with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, an 80th anniversary gala with the Tampere Philharmonic in Tampere, Finland.

Her season continues with debuts at the Verbier Festival as Herodias in Salome and as Castanica in Sarasota Opera's Yennefer.

I'm certain to be there.

Corita's recent seasons highlights including Herodias at the Paris Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and Houston Grand Opera, Platonestra at Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Royal Opera, La Sia Principesa at Sur Angelica in Paris, the Salzburg Festival, and the Belbois Opera, and too many others to name here.

did he do your did jimmy do your new fuss

no no no no No, I can't remember doing any Slavic stuff with him.

How about Salome? Yes.

Yeah, he did it in 2009.

Towards the end of the 19th century, opera composers began pushing the boundaries of both tonality and decorum.

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.

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