North York Central Library Blog

This is your last chance, opera lovers! The fourth and final Canadian Opera
Company opera talk takes place on Thursday March 28 at North York Central
Library. Wayne Gooding, author, lecturer and editor of Opera Canada magazine, will
discuss Richard Strauss’s controversial opera Salome.

Salome has had a fascinating performance history due to its controversial subject matter (it is based on the biblical story in which Salome demands the head of John the Baptist, and King Herod, driven by lust, complies.) Though Salome received 38 curtain calls when it premiered in Dresden in 1905, the path to this opening night success was not
smooth. Some of the singers rebelled when they first attempted their parts, protesting that they were too difficult. Marie Wittich, who played Salome, refused to
perform the infamous Dance of the Seven Veils (she is quoted as saying, “I
won’t do it, I’m a respectable woman”) and a dancer had to be found to stand in
for her during this scene. There was more controversy after the Dresden premiere.
The Kaiser would only allow the opera to be shown at the Berlin Court Opera on
the condition that the star of Bethlehem shone in the theatrical sky – chronological
inaccuracy didn’t matter to the Kaiser, it seems (Christ’s birth was thirty
years before the time period of Salome). Did the Kaiser think this bit of stage
design would somehow make the seduction, decapitation and necrophilia on stage more palatable to
the audience? At the 1907 premiere of Salome at the Metropolitan in New York certain wealthy audience members were so appalled by the opera, they used their influence to shut the production down — all future performances were cancelled. Strauss's source material had a troubled performance history as well. Oscar Wilde’s
play Salome (which Strauss based his libretto on) was in rehearsal in 1892 with a
planned London premiere, when it was banned by the Lord Chamberlain’s office.

Canadian film director and Academy Award nominee Atom Egoyan directs the Canadian Opera Company's production of Salome, which runs from April 21 to May 22. Egoyan talks about opera and directing Salome in a video interview on the Canadian Opera Company's blog.

The talk will be held in the
auditorium of North York Central Library, on Thursday March 28 at 7:00.
Call to register: 416-395-5639.

If you'd like to listen to Salome to enrich your experience of our final opera talk, remember, with your library card, you have access to Naxos Music Library, our streaming music service, anytime of day or night. Naxos Music Library has various versions of Strauss's Salome, including the following: