Review: Latest Met Live in HD broadcast features scandalous "Salome"

The latest live, high-definition broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera will be Richard Strauss' shocking opera "Salome."

The performance begings at noon Saturday at the Town Plaza Cinema; the encore broadcast will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Finnish soprano Karita Mattila will be playing the part of Salome, the daughter of Herodias and the stepdaughter of King Herod. When this opera premiered in Dresden, Germany, in 1905 it was quite a scandal. No one had ever seen anything quite like it.

In his book "The Splendid Art of Opera," Ethan Mordden writes this about the opera: "Salome, the flower of evil. Strauss places her like a jewel in a setting slimy with images of appetitive depravity." The music perfectly reflects all of the actions and emotions of the various characters.

When Salome sees John the Baptist, who is being held captive in a cistern, she immediately falls in love with him. She wants to touch him, but he curses her and goes back into his prison. When Herod appears, he makes advances to Salome, but she rejects him. Then he asks her to dance for him, which she does. This is the famous "Dance of the Seven Veils." When Herod asks Salome what she most desires in the whole world, she tells him it is the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. Herod is horrified; he offers her jewels, peacocks, anything but what she asks. Salome is adamant — she must have the Baptist's head. Finally the King gives in, the executioner goes down into the cistern and Salome anxiously awaits her prize.

The head appears and the moon is obscured by clouds. She sings to the head as if it were still alive. Finally, revolted by her passion, Herod orders that she be crushed under the shields of the soldiers.

When Salome premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1907, the audience was outraged. One critic called the work "moral stench." It was withdrawn after one performance and several years went by before it was presented again.

If you go to only one Met performance at the Town Plaza Cinema, be sure that this is the one.

Barb Herbert of Cape Girardeau is an opera lover and host of Southeast Public Radio's "Sunday Night at the Opera."