Multitalent Ersan Mondtag not only directs Salome , but also designs the costumes and the set. And anyone who has previously attended one of his performances at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen will know that something grand and colourful awaits us once again. Genre: scene-filling fairy-tale castle or spooky country house or... megalomaniacal palace of a derailed monarch. For Salome, Ersan Mondtag drew inspiration from Aleksandr Lukashenko's Belarus. Who, like Herod, the historical character on which Richard Strauss' opera is based, is a willing puppet for a higher-ranking dictator (being Putin and Emperor Tiberius). In our workshops in Zele, we have been working hard for the past few months on the gigantic set elements made of polystyrene foam (which will be painted later, of course). To look forward to!