Thus Theoda finds her lover. She comes, adorned with red berries and garlands, bringing the old King, who sees in bitter grief that his son is the victim of the creator of a new world of beauty and fertility, which he sees around him. Theoda bends down to her lover, who dies in her arms, while the King orders to destroy Moloch.
SALOME.
An Opera in one act and Libretto by RICHARD STRAUSS founded on OSCAR WILDE'S drama.
On December 9th, 1905, this opera was performed for the first time in Dresden.
Its success was immense, and can only be compared with that achieved at Bayreuth in 1876 by the first performance of the Nibelungen Ring.
The well-nigh perfect interpretation of this highly emotional opera proved to be the most difficult composition ever before attempted at the Dresden Opera House.
Salome is the emanation of a genius; for the music is as weird and passionate as the libretto, and moreover perfectly in keeping with its plot. It would be difficult to do justice to it, for in order to appreciate its complicated grandeur, one must have heard it performed. It combines sublimity with asceticism and wickedness, in a most marvellous manner.
Oscar Wilde, the unhappy poet, has produced a wonderful piece of literature in his treatment of the brutal facts connected with Salome's dance and Jokanaan's decapitation.
According to the Biblical tale, Salome is simply the tool of her mother Herodias, at whose instigation she demands Jokanaan's head.