Italy is to treat us to a masterful adaptation of one of the most representative operas of German expressionism. the Reggio Emilia Teatros are to unveil their version of Richard Strauss’ Salomé, with the ever-reliable Pier Luigi Pizzi heading stage direction, set design and wardrobe design.

With Oleg Caetani as conductor, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra is to interpret the music composed by Strauss towards the start of the twentieth century. As was the case with Oscar Wilde’s play on which the opera is based, Salome had its debut in Dresden in 1905 and immediately attracted fierce criticism from the puritan society at that time, the very same society that would eventually be won over by the opera’s immense artistic and musical vision.

As Strauss saw it, the risqué libretto, coupled with the highly-charged sexuality of the protagonist and the expansion and mutation of the Gospels as a side-line theme, was sublime material for a work to wrap off the century with a bang. Salome unfolds on a moonlit night at the palace. Herod Antipas is so utterly captivated by his niece Salome that he agrees to grant her any wish if she will only dance for him. This leads Salome to perform the famous dance of the seven veils. Her wish, according to the gospels, is the head of John the Baptist.