Salome / Das Gehege
Wolfgang Rihm /
Richard Strauss

Das Gehege: Uraufführung des Auftragswerks am 27. Oktober 2006 im Nationaltheater
Salome: Uraufführung am 9. Dezember 1905 an der Hofoper, Dresden The first performance of “Salome” in Dresden in 1905 was already surrounded by scandal, the prima donna and the public found the both erotic and brutal relationship between the princess of Judea and John the Baptist extremely suspicious. And yet it was this early literature-based opera, the libretto of which follows Oscar Wilde’s play almost to the word, which brought the Munich composer Richard Strauss the long desired breakthrough as a recognized opera composer. After his late-Romantic early works “Guntram” and “Feuersnot”, this erotic subject inspired the composer to produce a previously unheard richness of orchestral colour and musical dramatic effects which became famous particularly because of the “Dance of the Seven Veils” and Salome’s morbid final aria.
This early twentieth-century classic will be preceded by the first performance of Wolfgang Rihm’s latest music theatre work “Das Gehege”. Using a play script by Botho Strauß, Rihm, who has long since numbered among the most successful and frequently played contemporary composers, has created a monodrama for a singing actress. The woman in this music theatre solo conducts a conversation with an eagle in a compound. She highlights with great concentration and in the expressive sound language of today the longings for strength and dedication and for individual self-realization and integration into society which are to be found side by side in people and in doing so proves to be a kindred spirit of the Salome which was produced on stage some one hundred years earlier.

© Bavarian State Opera