Beneath desire, depravity. Beneath lust, bloodlust. Beneath the veils, everything is laid bare.

In King Herod’s lurid fantasies, lust has no boundaries and desire no limits. Even his own stepdaughter tempts him, taunts him: Salome, the virgin seductress, an innocent with a taste for blood.

Strauss’ taboo-breaking opera strips back Oscar Wilde’s play to its core: a gripping journey to the outer edges of human behaviour.

The music is at once ravishing and repellent. Strauss augments an enormous orchestra with organ, harps and celestas. The effect is a web of exotic melodies, enticing rhythms and intriguing dissonance, famously on display in the ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’. Heard live, it is an unforgettable experience.

JOAN SUTHERLAND THEATRE, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSEMARCH 6 – 26, 2019