Imagine it's 1902 Berlin, Richard Strauss sits in a small theater. He watches a girl, on the stage, who asks for too much. When the lights come up, the world feels slightly off, as if a clock has lost a second. He carries that feeling home. Not long after, Oscar Wilde’s play became the opera - *SALOME*
Until then, Strauss's music had belonged to men—heroes, myths. Salome pulls him somewhere else. She is young, dangerous, already trapped by everyone else’s fascination. At the turn of the century, she floats through paintings, novels, —a figure seen too much, yet never fully known.
At the Komische Oper Berlin, *SALOME* takes the stage by Evgeny Titov’s precise and daring vision. The stage itself is a world of its own—brass-lined, tight, pressing inward. It traps the characters, focuses the tension, and makes the audience feel the intensity of every longing and every fear. Salome becomes more than a story; she becomes a presence.
The singers rise to the challenge of Strauss’s demanding score, balancing technical mastery with emotional intensity, while the orchestra responds with a richness and clarity that brings out the music’s darkly sensual textures. Every moment, from the hypnotic *Dance of the Seven Veils* to the chilling finale, is framed with care, ensuring that nothing in the performance feels wasted.
This performance is an experience that lingers—sharp, unforgettable, and strangely intimate, as if the stage itself has tells its secrets directly to you.
Foto: Jan Windszus
