Salome
Allison Oakes sings title role in Strauss’ sensual opera.
Grotesque, erotic, forbidden, psychotic, macabre – Salome mirrors the extreme limits of the darkest sides of the human condition.
In the 1890s Oscar Wilde passionately took hold of the biblical story about Salome, Herod and John the Baptist. A few years after his death, Richard Strauss transformed Wilde's work into an intense opera that reaches its chilling climax in the course of just one act.
It was not the shocking story that appealed to Strauss, but the opportunity to make glittering, explosive music. He makes straight for the disturbingly violent emotions of the characters: Herod sneers and his wife Herodias nags, while Princess Salome sings, uninhibited and sensually, in an unparalleled soundscape. The original-sounding orchestral 'Dance of the Seven Veils' is one of the operas's highlights, until the double basses tremble, warning ominously of something falling heavily to the floor …
Image: Allison Oakes (photo: Fiona MacPherson)
Information
The title role is replaced by soprano Allison Oakes (23 May 2022).
New date: This event was postponed from the 2020 Bergen International Festival and has a new concert date in 2022.
Venue
Duration
2 h
Tickets
Language
Contributors
- Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
- Edward Gardner conductor
- Allison Oakes Salome
- Kostas Smoriginas Jochanaan
- Hubert Francis Herodes
- Karin Lovelius Herodias
- Bror Magnus Tødenes Narraboth
- Hanna Hipp a page
- Michael Müller-Kasztelan 1. Jew
- Petter Wulffsberg Moen 2. Jew
- John Michael Wrenstedt Olsen 3. Jew
- Kjetil Støa 4. Jew
- Nicolas Legoux 5. Jew
- Jens-Erik Aasbø 1. Nazarene
- Romanas Kudriašovas 2. Nazarene
- Igor Bakan 1. Soldier
- Håvard Stensvold 2. Soldier
- James Berry a Cappadocian
- Rita Therese Ziem A slave
A co-production with
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Music by
- Strauss