Dan Scofield and Kelly Slawson in Salome at the Union Avenue Opera. Photo by Dan Donovan.
Union Avenue Opera’s summer season closed with Richard Strauss’s Salome, a bold and unsettling work that still has the power to shock more than a century after its 1905 premiere. Performances began at Union Avenue Christian Church on Friday, August 15; the final performance takes place on Saturday, August 23. Billed as “An Opera of Desire and Destruction,” this staging lives up to the tagline with an evening that is as visually arresting as it is emotionally unsettling.
Strauss’s opera, adapted from Oscar Wilde’s one-act tragedy, revisits one of the grisliest tales in the New Testament: the temptation and eventual death of John the Baptist. At the time of its premiere, its combination of eroticism, violence, and psychological intensity made it controversial. Today, it still commands critical attention, and Union Avenue’s production proves why.
The opera begins with Narraboth, captain of the guard (Brian Skoog), transfixed by Salome despite warnings from a page (Emily Geller). Salome (Kelly Slawson), the young princess of Judea, has already attracted unwanted attention from her stepfather, King Herod (Will Upham). Seeking to escape his obsessive gaze, she wanders to the guard post where Jochanaan (Daniel Scofield) is being held in an underground cistern. A political prisoner who has dared to denounce the royal family and their pagan ways, Jochanaan proclaims the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. He answers to a greater authority than Herod, and he denounced his wife Herodias (Joanna Ehlers), who was previously married to his half-brother, as an incestuous whore of Babylon.
Salome is hypnotized by the strange words coming from the cistern. She orders the soldiers to let Jochanaan out so that she can inspect him. When he emerges from the darkness, lean and disheveled, Salome becomes enthralled. She praises his beauty and begs for a kiss, but he rebuffs her at every turn. That rejection only deepens her obsession, and soon she plots to use Herod’s lust to obtain what she desires. The result is an ending that is both horrifying and inevitable, carried out in a blaze of crimson light and Strauss’s searing score.
The staging is effective in its stark simplicity: a raised stone platform with Jochanaan’s prison at its center, framed by stairways and hung with dark tapestries. The palette of midnight blue establishes the moody, oppressive tone, while the lighting shifts dynamically with the action. Jochanaan’s appearances bring brightness; the bloody finale, a deep, violent red. Costumes emphasize period grandeur — royalty clad in ancient finery, soldiers in Roman armor — with Salome’s royal-purple dancer’s outfit and jeweled tiara providing a striking centerpiece.
The drama is elevated by nuanced performances and vocal virtuosity. Slawson’s Salome is mesmerizing, moving from girlish curiosity to overwhelming desire and cruelty. Her soprano voice, luminous and deft, makes the character’s final descent all the more chilling. As Jochanaan, Scofield embodies dignity and spiritual strength, his baritone ringing with prophetic force that cuts through the night air. Ehlers delivers a sharp and vindictive Herodias, while Upham’s Herod fascinates as a wealthy ruler undone by weakness and excess.
Union Avenue’s Salome serves as a fitting conclusion to a diverse and ambitious season. It is a fitting follow-up to Pagliacci, another tragic meditation on the dangers of unchecked desire. The Union Avenue Christian Church proves to be an ideal setting for the dark biblical epic, its intimacy adding to the intensity of the experience.
More than a century later, Salome still poses unsettling questions about lust, power, and the human cost of indulgence. This production drives home the point that earthly pleasure pales beside the pursuit of truth and higher purpose — a message that resonates just as strongly today. | Rob Von Nordheim
