Salome

Salome has come to symbolize the dangerous female seductress and is a story that has long been a subject for painters, authors and musicians including such distinguished names as Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss. Salome was the stepdaughter of King Herod and on the occasion of his birthday danced for him and his court "a dance of excessive inhibition" (the sequence Strauss depicted in his opera as 'the dance of the seven veils'. The King was so pleased that he offered her anything she desired in return. Through Salome, Herodias her mother, took the opportunity to obtain the head of John the Baptist against who she held a grudge for declaring her marriage to Herod unlawful. Gareth Wood's graphic, almost tactile score is so descriptive, that he vividly brings to life the anguish, lust and murder found in this tortured and tormented story.