The Metropolitan Opera’s 2024-25 season of live Saturday matinee broadcasts continues on May 17 with "Salome," Richard Strauss’s one-act opera based on the shocking play by Oscar Wilde.
Soprano Elza van den Heever sings the role of the troubled princess Salome. Baritone Peter Mattei plays the object of Salome’s deadly fascination, Jochanaan – John the Baptist. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in a new production by Claus Guth.
From the Met: "The story of this incendiary and powerful opera 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 (which was banned from performance in several countries). Strauss’s score combines the grandeur of Wagner’s epics with the focus and emotional punch of the short Italian verismo operas."
Read the synopsis from the Metropolitan Opera.
Composer: Richard Strauss
Libretto: Hedwig Lachmann
CAST
Salome: Elza van den Heever
Herodias: Michelle DeYoung
Herod: Gerhard Siegel
Narraboth: Piotr Buszewski
Jochanaan: Peter Mattei
