Tickets Sales from CentreStageTickets.co.uk

Salome
Royal Opera House, London
Thu, 21st February 2008 - Wed, 12th March 2008
From £31.00*

Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes (no interval) Sung in German with English surtitles Please note: This opera contains scenes of nudity and violence * Jette Parker Young Artist ‘Dance Salome, dance for me’. At these words King Herod’s stepdaughter, the sensuous Salome, begins her famous Dance of the Seven Veils to arouse him. In return, she demands the head of John the Baptist on a silver charger: if the religious prophet she desired had refused her kiss in life, his severed head will not be able to refuse her lips in death. Even though Strauss’s operatic setting of the tale in a single act is over a century old it still has the power to shock as well as enthrall. On stage the story has provoked scandal – violence and nudity are inevitably part of its nature – not least with Oscar Wilde’s play, upon which Strauss based his opera. A similarly potent combination of sex and religion inspired David McVicar to a stunning and popular production of Faust for The Royal Opera, and he now returns with that same heady mixture of themes to explore the psychology of its hypnotically degenerate central character. Es Devlin’s art-deco-inspired designs evoke physical and moral decay in a grand setting, and Nadja Michael performs a demanding central role for which she has become well known. With the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under the baton of Philippe Jordan bringing their dazzling orchestral virtuosity to Strauss’s stunning showpiece of a score, this promises to be a white-hot staging of a seering operatic tour de force. Credits Composer Richard Strauss Director David McVicar Designs Es Devlin Lighting Wolfgang Göbbel Choreography Andrew George Performers Conductor Philippe Jordan Salome Nadja Michael Herodias Michaela Schuster Page to Herodias Daniela Sindram Herod Thomas Moser Narraboth Joseph Kaiser Jokanaan Michael Volle First Nazarene Iain Paterson Second Nazarene Andrew Mayor First Soldier Christopher Sist Second Soldier Alan Ewing First Jew Adrian Thompson Second Jew Martyn Hill Third Jew Hubert Francis Fourth Jew Ji-Min Park* Fifth Jew Jeremy White A Cappadocian Vuyani Mlinde* Slave Pumeza Matshikiza*