A biblical thriller: Salome falls for John the Baptist who refuses the desires of the headstrong princess. For both of them, it will end in death. Oscar Wilde turned the story of Salome and the incarcerated anarchist into a scandalous one-act drama, and Richard Strauss went on to turn the play into a musical psychological thriller.

In just under two breathtakingly hot, colourfully scintillating hours of opera under the musical direction of General Musical Director Stephan Zilias, the boundaries of greed, of frenzied, unbounded Dionysian compulsions are overstepped more than once. Both Salome’s and Jochanaan’s narcissist inability to consider anything but themselves as the measure of all thing leads straight into destruction.

For director Ingo Kerkhof, Salome reveals everything that frightens a male world that operates according to the principles of rationality. In the production’s sensually charged atmosphere, the signs of patriarchal times and structures are the focus of character interpretation. Jochanaan’s fanatical religious glorification and Salome’s erotic ecstasy collide in the world of Herods’ court, which is shaped by violence and fear. And yet, despite the fatal outcome, both Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss believe: “The secret of love is stronger than the secret of death”.