There are few operas in which well-known Biblical characters get in your face as much as in Richard Strauss's opera Salome. Up front: the prophet and preacher John the Baptist (Jochanaän in the opera). He baptised Jesus Christ in the Jordan River and was imprisoned by King Herod Antipas for criticising Herod's supposedly illegal and ‘sinful’ marriage. In fact, Herod Antipas had remarried Herodias, the ex of his half-brother Herod Philip. Herod Antipas and Herod Philip were scions of the unpopular Herodian dynasty, which ruled the (then) Jewish land from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD, in the service of the Roman Empire. Herod Antipas was a vassal prince, dependent on the Roman emperor. He is known from the gospels as the man who had John the Baptist put to death and may have contributed to Christ's execution. Christ himself is not in the opera - that was completely unthinkable in the theatrical practice of the time - but his coming as the Messiah is proclaimed by John in a loud voice. At the end of the opera, John's head is presented on a platter as a reward for a dance performed by Herod's stepdaughter Salome for the monarch. That macabre event is also evoked in the Bible, albeit briefly, and without mentioning Salome by name. The historian Flavius Josephus does identify ‘the daughter of Herodias’, as evangelists Mark and Matthew describe her, as Salome.

In November 1902, Richard Strauss attended a German-language version of the play at the Kleines Theater in Berlin, directed by theatre legend Max Reinhardt and featuring the then equally legendary actress Gertrud Eysoldt in the title role. The 38-year-old composer was so captivated by the work that he attended several performances. On 9 December 1905, Strauss' opera premiered at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden. Despite its resounding success, the opera also gained a reputation as a scandal piece, with the prevailing opinion becoming: beautiful music but a thoroughly immoral subject. Not only did the Church oppose performances, several theatres also dropped out.

Remarkably, Salome first falls under the spell of John's voice and only then does she manage to speak to him face to face. To do so, she has to convince Narraboth, the head of the palace guard, to bring the prophet out of his underground dungeon. Narraboth, who thereby violates a ban by Herod, has to listen to Salome, in a language that overtly evokes the Biblical Song of Songs, sing of the physical beauty of the fanatical ascetic with an excess of imagery. It becomes too powerful for Narraboth. Filled with lust for the princess, he lashes out at himself. Salome's attempt to seduce the prophet is one of the samples of gender bending with which Wilde peppered his play. When Salome sings of John's body, mouth and hair, she appropriates the ‘male gaze’: the way a man revels in a woman's sex appeal. John's resolute rejection of the ‘depraved’ princess will cost him dearly.

From Oscar Wilde's linguistic work, Richard Strauss distilled a thrilling one-act in four scenes that seamlessly merge through instrumental interludes. As with Wagner, the orchestra has an active, dramatic role. The more compact format makes the opera read like an erotic thriller, which nowhere loses momentum. Ersan Mondtag focuses on the political thriller fermenting under the surface of the story: the social and political turmoil that puts Herod's dictatorship under high tension and the religious conflicts that John's preaching provokes. The director drew inspiration from parallels between the historical Herod and Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus. Both are vassal princes in the service of a higher power. Just as Herod depended on Emperor Tiberius, Lukashenko is Putin's puppet. They are weak but cruel subdictators who translate the cult of the Great Leader into megalomaniacal structures. That is why Herod's palace, built in the vein of post-socialist propaganda architecture, dominates Mondtag's set. While the outside of the palace exudes an atmosphere of indoctrination and repression, decadence reigns inside, which ultimately brings down Herod and his court.