March 2022, Fisher Center Bard, Salome, opera by Strauss, conductor Leon Botstein, production R. B. Schlather, light Masha Tsimring, props Patrice Escandon, Maggie McFarland, titles Steven Jude Tietjan, assistant Michael Hofmann, stage manager Jason Kaiser, hair and makeup Jennifer Donovan, wigs and beards Amanda Miller, photographs Maria Baranova

Director’s Note:

I will never forget my first encounter with Strauss and Wilde’s “Salome,” now over twenty years ago. Exotic, dark, shocking, loud, freaky, creepy, gross, sleazy, charming, horrifying, intense, fabulous. I loved it, of course! A perfect theater piece. A work so arch, brutal, ironic, and queer courtesy Oscar Wilde’s over the top poetics. So unreal, yet such recognizably human in its motivations, power structures and decadence. And heart-breaking too, in its depiction of a young person trying to make her own way in a Man’s world. Interesting that strait-laced Strauss picked up this subversive material for his 1905 composition. By then Oscar had been jailed for being gay, and the subject matter is in very bad taste all round. But luckily it gripped the composer’s imagination, and he wrote some of the most explosive, radical opera music the world had yet heard. For this staged concert, I wanted to suggest this biblical spectacle in a reduced way. The design is inspired by modernist stage and lighting pioneer Adolphe Appia’s educational performances at the festival theatre Hellerau around the time Strauss was writing. And the loud colors of the costumes are inspired by Wilde’s directive to the designer of his play that everyone should be wearing shades of yellow, except the king and queen who should wear red like blood, and Salome who should wear black like “a curious, poisonous lizard.” 

This production was about to start rehearsal on March 15, 2020, the day the world paused. For me, finally performing it bookends a period of void, and I can’t think of a better piece to welcome us back into the magical unreality of the theater. As macabre as it is to say about this piece: Enjoy!