About the opera
- Run time: 1hrs 45min, no intermission
- Sung in: German
- Subtitles: English, German
- Opera house: Vienna State Opera
Today Salome stands as a masterpiece, and is arguably the first modern opera. The story is derived from a brief biblical account: A young princess of Judea dances for her stepfather Herod and chooses as her reward the head of the prophet John the Baptist. This subject captured the imaginations of generations of visual artists, but its full possibilities were perhaps best realized in Oscar Wilde’s 1891 tragedy. Strauss’s score combines the grandeur of Wagner’s epics with the focus and emotional punch of the short Italian verismo operas. However troubling the theme, the opera's velvety, high-tension music grips audiences.
Ticket information
- Select a date an book
- E-Ticket (Print@home)
Vienna State Opera
Opernring 2, 1010 Vienna View in Google Maps
How to get there:
Subway: U1, U2, U4 to Karlsplatz
Trams: 1, 2, D, 62, 71 to Opernring
After the performance taxis will drive up to the main entrance
Conductor Yoel Gamzou
Herodes Jörg Schneider
Herodias Stephanie Houtzeel
Salome Jennifer Holloway
Jochanaan Tomasz Konieczny
Narraboth Hiroshi Amako
Page Alma Neuhaus
Born in Munich into a family of musicians, Richard Strauss (1864–1949) began his musical studies at the age of four, began composition studies aged 11 and in 1883 became a protégé of the conductor Hans von Bülow, who encouraged him to study the music of Wagner. Strauss’s early masterpieces include several orchestral tone poems and many songs. Around the end of the 19th century, Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two operas, Guntram (1893) and Feuersnot (1901), received lukewarm responses, but Salome (1905) was a major success - although regarded by some as blasphemous and obscene, it triumphed in all the major opera houses except Vienna, where the censor forbade Gustav Mahler to stage it. The Austrian premiere was given at the Graz Opera in 1906 under the composer, with Arnold Schoenberg, Giacomo Puccini, Alban Berg, and Gustav Mahler in the audience. Today, Salome is a well-established part of the operatic repertoire.
The libretto is the German translation of the play Salomé by Oscar Wilde (1854 –1900), edited by Strauss. The play tells the Biblical story of Salome, who requests from her stepfather Herod Antipas the head of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils. Strauss saw Wilde's play in Berlin in November 1902, and began composing his opera in the following year.
