Klarinet Archive - Posting 000010.txt from 2008/02

From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Salome at the Dallas Opera
Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:55:06 -0500

Ok Dan...book your flight. You can stay at our place.

Forest

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel Leeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
> Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 10:40 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: RE: [kl] Salome at the Dallas Opera
>
> Scott Cantrell's review of the Salome in The Dallas Morning News doesn't
> even begin to tell the sexual side of that opera. The necrophilial aspect
> of
> the piece has to do with the orgasm that Salome achieves when in
> possession
> of the head of John the Baptist. She is supposed to be about 16 years of
> age. If you know what is about to happen to her, you can't miss it.
>
> She croons, in German, "I have kissed your mouth, John... I have tasted
> your
> blood." all the while she plays with the disembodied head, cut from John's
> body by an executioner at her demand. And to get the head, she had to
> dance
> naked before the king, her step father, who is hot for her. That's the
> dance
> of the seven veils, which is supposed to leave Salome naked when the 7th
> veil covering her body is finally taken off.
>
> But there is a hilarious and true story about that scene.
>
> In one production, the guy who played the role of John the Baptist was
> neurotic about germs, so when he was not singing, he wore a small mask
> that
> covered his mouth and nose, supposedly to prevent germs from being
> breathed
> in.
>
> At the first performance of that staging, some wiseguy got hold of the
> head
> that was used for the scene where John is executed (below the stage,
> supposedly in the dungeon). It was resting on a silver-colored platter,
> covered by the kind of thing that you might see in a fancy restaurant when
> a
> dish is brought to the table and then uncovered with dramatic flair. And
> this wiseguy put a small medical mask over the nose and mouth of the head.
>
> So now the scene occurs. Salome finishes her dance and is rushed offstage
> so that she can sing the rest of the opera with clothes on. When she
> comes
> back, her step father, the king, asks her what it is she wants for having
> danced for him. He had promised here anything she wanted if she would
> dance
> naked for him. (That's the incestuous part.) She says that she wants the
> head of John on a silver platter. He says no, she says yes and finally
> she
> beats him down.
>
> So the executioner gos down to the dungeon, cuts off John's head and in a
> splendid orchestral crescendo, the platter with the cover is shoved up
> from
> the dungeon. You see the arm of the executioner holding the grisly
> package.
> Salome takes the covered platter with the head on it, takes the cover off,
> and there...
>
> ... is the clay head with the medical mask on it.
>
> The soprano almost had a heart attack, either because she thought it might
> have been the real head, or else she was laughing so hard that he couldn't
> sing the final 15 minutes of the opera, which is entirely her big solo.
> There she plays with the head, kisses it on the lips, etc., and has a
> genuine operatic orgasm, the first of its kind by Strauss, and which
> caused
> half the audience of women to faint during the first performance, perhaps
> out of jealousy.
>
> Supposedly, the mask stayed on the head for entire scene.
>
> That's the funny side of the opera.
>
> Dan Leeson
> dnleeson@-----.net
> SKYPE: dnleeson
>
>
>
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