Salome

Salome, Who Wasn't?

Her story begins without a name. In the New Testament account of John the Baptist's execution, we encounter Herod Antipas, his wife Herodias, and her daughter. Herodias hated John, whom her husband kept imprisoned, because he reminded them of a fact they’d rather forget - that she had once been Herod’s brother’s wife. At the time, marrying your brother’s wife while he was still alive was considered incestuous. As a ruler, the tetrarch both respected and feared the prophet, known to many as the Messiah, and so kept him in a kind of limbo - imprisoned without clear sentencing.

In this story, Herodias’s daughter becomes a tool, a symbol of how sinful parental lives can destroy not only the family but the world. Naively, after performing a dance and at her mother's suggestion, she asks for the head of John the Baptist. Herod, bound by his promise, must present it to her on a silver platter.

Only later does this girl become Salome, when biblical and historical sources were combined and coins bearing her image were found. It is said that she later married her uncle and, after his death, her cousin - becoming Queen of Lesser Armenia (modern-day central Turkey).

Receiving a Name - and Dying

Once artists took an interest in her, Salome gradually transformed from a girl into a femme fatale, a seductress who leads men astray. Most depictions of Salome as a central character appeared from the 15th century onward. It seems that only as art distanced itself from the Church - not only illustrating but also interpreting biblical stories - did artists begin to see the unnamed figures with new eyes.

Fra Filippo Lippi’s Feast of Herod (c. 1460) and Titian’s Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (1515) still emphasize her innocence, contrasting it with the brutality of the severed head. A more mature version of her appears in Caravaggio’s Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (1607 and 1609).

A dramatic shift occurs in the late 19th century. In Gustave Moreau’s The Apparition (1876), Salome becomes an icon of the decadent woman archetype. Sensuality also abounds in Henri Regnault’s 1870 painting Salome.

French writers were equally restless. After Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1869 poem about Herod’s family, Gustave Flaubert published Three Tales in 1877. One of them, Herodias, placed all blame for John’s death on Salome’s mother. This story inspired Jules Massenet’s 1881 opera Hérodiade, where Salome tragically commits suicide. The premiere took place in Brussels, as the Paris Opera director rejected it, saying he liked Massenet’s music but recommended he find a librettist capable of building a “dramatic skeleton.”

In time, and with countless artistic contributions, Herodias’s daughter came to be known simply as Salome.

How Today’s Salome Was Born

The Salome we envision today was formed through a long interweaving of artworks and interpretations. Maturing between visual art and literature, modern Salome took final shape in Oscar Wilde’s French play Salomé (1891), illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley in 1894. In 1903, Hedwig Lachmann translated Wilde’s play into German, which became the basis for Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera Salome (Op. 54). Drawing inspiration from each other, artists grew Salome into the operatic phenomenon we know today. But why, if inspired by an Irishman’s play, was it not performed in English?

Until 1931, British censorship strictly prohibited stage depictions of certain topics and figures - including biblical ones. This aimed to prevent ridicule or misinterpretation of sacred imagery. Wilde’s play in Britain would have been unthinkable. As the censors put it: written in French, with a semi-biblical, semi-pornographic plot, and authored by Wilde himself - what average Briton could possibly watch that?

Furiously offended, Wilde threatened to become a French citizen and published Salomé in French in 1893. Critics noted the clear influence of Flaubert. A year later, the English translation appeared. Still, the play - with or without censorship - was not well received by either the English or French public due to its provocative plot.

The symbolic, psychologically complex drama gained popularity in Germany, where Max Reinhardt staged it in 1901. Sadly, Wilde did not witness any of these premieres; in 1895, he was imprisoned for homosexuality, and upon release, he left for France, where he died.

Everything that seemed inappropriate or scandalous to audiences then was precisely what Wilde emphasized. In his version, the innocent girl’s dance for the royal court becomes an intimate performance for Herod. The seductive image embedded by French artists is amplified in the drama by the infamous Dance of the Seven Veils. The veils suggested a striptease-like seduction, making the scene far more sexual than before. This moment inspired many artists, including Gustav Klimt in his painting Judith II / Salome (1909), merging the tales of two biblical women.

Wilde elevated Salome’s sexuality to near-nymphomaniac levels, particularly in her interaction with John the Baptist - culminating in her kissing his severed head. These scenes became iconic in Strauss’s opera.

The Ultimate Challenge for Opera Singers

While working on the play, Wilde claimed his text was highly musical - full of repeating motifs, much like music. Strauss cut many of them, keeping only what he felt essential, reducing the text to half its original length. In turn, he created space for an astonishing, richly expressive score.

As summarized in András Batta’s opera guide: “Salome, as an experience for the listener, is a sequence of climactic points, each more intense than the last. The severed, bloody head of John (Jochanaan), lifted from the dungeon by massive executioner’s hands, may seem repulsive and frightening. Yet the accompanying music is seductively beautiful, narrating an overwhelming passion. This is Salome’s Liebestod, a paraphrase echoing Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. John’s lips taste bitter to Salome, and the strange music accompanying this act of love is just as sweetly bitter.”

To perform Salome requires not only a dramatic soprano with wide vocal range, but also exceptional acting and grace - even dance skills. It was once said that Salome should ideally be “a girl with Isolde’s voice.” This description returns us to the visual contradiction of innocence and brutality. Few of the world’s best sopranos have memorably performed this role - for a long time, many refused it due to the indecent dance, leading to the common use of a dancer-double for that scene.

Over time, both creators and audiences have become more open, receptive, and capable of deeper symbolic interpretation. With themes ranging from the dominant moon imagery (the great Sarah Bernhardt once claimed the moon was the play’s true protagonist), to power and violence, and the overall destructive impact of the story - Salome has made its way onto today’s stages, always generating anticipation before each premiere.

Interest in Salome shows no sign of waning. She continues to reappear in contemporary art, film, and popular music. Her name has echoed from the Kronos Quartet, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, U2, to British rocker Pete Doherty. In 1988, musician and writer Nick Cave penned his own version of Wilde’s play. In 2017, former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker included a song titled Salome on his solo album - in it, he humorously sings about finding his own head in a box, subtly incorporating the tambourine, an instrument associated in Strauss’s opera with the Dance of the Seven Veils.

The Fateful performance : Asmik Grigorian as “Salome”

In 2018, at the prestigious Salzburg Festival, on its main stage nestled against mountain rocks, Romeo Castellucci presented his own interpretation of “Salome.” Later it was written that the success of his production was guaranteed by Asmik Grigorian. Even before the premiere, the soloist said she saw Salome “as a wronged child with all the ensuing consequences. <...> I was very lucky, because the director is a symbolist, an expert in visual arts, so my psychoanalytical take on the performance - since I look at Salome purely through a psychological lens - is enriched by all the symbols he creates, and I think this will result in a very strong joint work.”

The theme of sexual abuse is clearly articulated here, and every encounter Salome has with her environment forces her to grow up rapidly - from a little girl, the only light on stage, into a woman who sees no other future. As The New York Times wrote, nothing in this production unfolds as expected: there is no Dance of the Seven Veils, only her body frozen in the face of violence; Johanaan’s head is not brought on a platter - his motionless body is seated instead.

When the lights went out, this Salzburg “Salome” became an inseparable fusion of Castellucci’s direction and Grigorian’s artistry, securing the Lithuanian soprano a place among the greats of opera. The morning after the Salzburg premiere, it was announced: Asmik Grigorian is now a global star. Those who attended the final dress rehearsal said the applause for the soloist was deafening, and after the first premiere, the famous director fell to his knees before the Lithuanian soprano during the curtain call.

Critics at the Financial Times didn’t mince words, titling their review “The Salome to End All Salomes”: “If this ‘Salome’ works - and it does - it’s because of Grigorian. Her Salome ends all others. On a vast empty stage stands she - a fragile figure in a white dress - and the entire audience breathes with her. She is no longer a pampered girl, more the consequence of violence than a victim, embodying all the pain and yearning of being the last shred of humanity in this heartless world. <...> In the end, nothing else matters. Grigorian’s wave of charisma sweeps everything in its path.”

Orf: “The first audience, initially in a state of total shock, came to their senses during the applause and celebrated the birth of a new star in the operatic sky. And they were right. Grigorian, supported by Franz Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic, who played with immense frenzy, gradually emerged beyond the directorial dominance to become stronger than it, vocally and dramatically.”

BR-Klassik: “She is simply stunning: Asmik Grigorian sings, embodies, is Salome. Her blazing, brilliant soprano outshines all of Strauss’s orchestral excesses. Singing pianissimo, her voice takes on a seductive lightness, but when in the lowest register she demands Johanaan’s head, you feel the full edge of emotional discomfort. In a white dress <...> she moves across the nearly empty golden stage and dominates the evening - with gestures, steps, glances, and breathtaking vocal power.”

Merkur: “Asmik Grigorian must have appeared in Richard Strauss’s dreams <...> Fragility, refusal to compromise, brutal and extreme beauty, control that defies all challenges, a superhuman will to create - it all emanates from her acting and singing.”

Der Standard: “Amazingly, despite all the directorial demands, Grigorian’s voice retains its strength and flexibility. Full of character in every register. Grigorian is able to pour every tone with emotion.”

Opera Click: “Grigorian and her vocal and acting skills triumph on stage, perfectly merging with the directorial vision to reveal a still immature, confused Salome through the tools of mature artistry.”

AltaMusica: “All evening we marvel at how such enchanting sounds can emerge from this delicate young woman, her body seemingly in a trance, yet still transmitting volcanic temperament.”

Bachtrack: “The Lithuanian soprano mesmerizes the audience just as she does Herod. Grigorian’s soprano - bright, metallic, tireless - cuts through the raging Vienna Philharmonic.”

Diapason: “Grigorian brings the house to its feet after a phenomenal vocal and physical performance. The Judean princess is born - may her reign be long.”

Kurier: “She is the ideal Salome, shaping every nuance, never shouting a single phrase. She is a stage sensation.”

Oönachrichten: “All in all, Grigorian elevates singing and acting to perfection.”

Deutschlandfunk: “...in the moments of greatest despair and melancholy, she delivers her pianissimo with such intensity it touches every corner of the opera house. Rarely has Salome’s oppressed and destroyed soul been portrayed so grippingly and chillingly.”

Asmik - Salome’s journey continues

Perhaps, as the press writes, Asmik’s portrayal ends all other Salomes, yet for her, it was only the beginning of what has become the most successful phase of her soloist career. Six years on from that fateful performance, the Lithuanian soloist remains in high demand on the world’s leading opera stages: New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Milan’s La Scala, London’s Royal Opera House, Arena di Verona, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, with regular returns to Salzburg. Listing them all seems nearly impossible.

She has received numerous awards as one of the world’s top soloists:
International Opera Awards – Singer of the Year (2019)
Austrian Theatre Awards – Best Leading Role Performer (2019)
Opernwelt Critics’ Award – Singer of the Year (2019)
Ópera XXI Association Award – Opera Singer of the Year (2022)
Opus Klassik Awards – Singer of the Year (2023)
Austrian Music and Theatre Awards – Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Austria’s Opera and Theatre Scene (2024)

El Pais: “Grigorian sings as well as then, if not better, lending her character authenticity. She has the voice and power to convince with what she does on stage and to move the audience.”

Financial Times: “Since her fiery debut in this role five years ago in Salzburg, Asmik Grigorian has secured her place. She sings with every fiber of her being, pushing herself to the limits of her abilities - which over the past five years have expanded in expressive scope and depth.”

Giornale della Musica: “In terms of vocal ability and artistic approach, Asmik Grigorian eclipses everyoneeven when sharing the stage with partners of the highest level.”

One Concert Hall – A Gathering of European “Salomés”

On October 14, 2024, Salomé will be performed - a chance to witness the return of Asmik Grigorian, whose talent was born on this very stage, following her global acclaim. Sharing the stage with her are two top-tier singers performing the leading male roles. British tenor John Daszak sings Herod - a role he has already performed alongside Grigorian at the Salzburg Festival and the Hamburg Opera. Renowned and praised for his vocal versatility and compelling acting, Daszak is a sought-after guest at opera houses worldwide, with performances at such prestigious venues as the New York Metropolitan Opera and La Scala in Milan.

For the first time alongside Grigorian, the role of Jochanaan will be sung by Kostas Smoriginas, who successfully debuted in the part in Zurich and Bergen. He has received high praise from critics for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and ability to maintain a youthful, consistent tone paired with organic acting and strong stage presence. Smoriginas’s Jochanaan is already scheduled to appear on at least four European stages.

Interestingly, Daszak and Dalia Ibelhauptaitė have previously crossed paths in London, during acting masterclasses she led. True to the spirit of VCO events, Salomé offers a rare occasion to bring together not only Lithuanian and international talent, but also soloists encountered by Ibelhauptaitė who masterfully combine vocal and acting prowess.

The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra (LVSO), under maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius, also encountered Salomé back in 1998. Since its founding in 1989, LVSO has been called the young, new orchestra, and today, without losing its youthful energy, it has become one of the most mature and musically ambitious ensembles. Throughout its long collaboration with VCO, the orchestra has embraced and delivered powerful performances of Dalia Ibelhauptaitė’s productions of operas by Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jules Massenet, Claude Debussy, Leoš Janáček, and others - even the unique musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim.

“There Will Be No Encore” – A Tribute to Homeland and Talent

Salomé marks a new artistic chapter for VCO with the launch of a cycle titled There Will Be No Encore. It brings together shifting circumstances and some of the most striking achievements in Lithuanian opera history. The artists return to the newly renovated LVSO concert hall, where the story of the "bohemians" once began. Since then, many of them - like the stage itself - have undergone significant transformations. The new cycle and its featured works will showcase the results: for one night only, creating a living bridge to the world’s greatest opera stages where our soloists now perform.

Dalia Ibelhauptaitė:

“For fifteen years, our home was at the Congress Hall. Under technically very difficult conditions, we created seventeen productions there. Soloists returned to show how they had improved or to debut new roles at home before taking them abroad.
Now, a new stage has arrived - I want to bring everyone back to show Lithuania the roles that made our singers loved, appreciated, and awarded by the entire world.
This is our cultural history, our opera’s Golden Age, and an inspiration for the young.”

“I now want to do things that are meaningful and become part of our cultural legacy. I see myself as the creative super-producer of VCO, putting all my efforts into assembling the best of what we have - like a national Olympic team. With them, I plan to present works that maybe we’ve never even heard in Lithuania, or would not have dared to produce with VCO in the past.

I’m deeply grateful that for 25 years I’ve been able to realize all my musical ideas and dreams with Maestro Rinkevičius - my musical soulmate and the one who brings every challenge to life!
Will this be a Salomé directed by Dalia Ibelhauptaitė? No.
Will this be a Salomé that Dalia assembled piece by piece to make it happen? Yes.
Lithuania doesn’t need a “Dalia’s Salomé” now - it needs Asmik’s and Kostas’s Salomé. And the fact that I can gather them all for one evening, bring them to the stage door, and send them out onto that stage - that is my greatest achievement.”

The Director as Mentor

Though Dalia Ibelhauptaitė is most visible as the face of VCO and the driving force behind its productions, much of her work has gone on quietly in the background over the years. The "bohemians" phenomenon not only brought youth and relevance back to Lithuanian opera but also raised a generation of opera singers able to combine vocal performance with acting.

On one hand, VCO's repertoire has always reflected her and Gintaras Rinkevičius’s personal “dream list” of works they wanted to stage in their own vision. On the other, each production has marked a new step for soloists - pushing past previous limits and reaching new professional heights.

Musicologist Veronika Janatjeva once noted: “It’s clear that the [VCO’s] motivation is not material - it’s about opportunities for self-realization and a fertile environment for creative fulfillment.”

Creating and maintaining such a working environment, Ibelhauptaitė emphasizes that her perspective on theatre life was shaped by the legendary Dalia Tamulevičiūtė and her Youth Theatre: “We mostly know directors, let’s call them builders, whose focus is the production of individual performances. They are currently the foundation of the Western opera world.
But there is another type - the mentor. For me, Dalia Tamulevičiūtė has always been that example.
Would there have been a Nekrošius without her? No.
Would the Youth Theatre have become what it was and what it is now? No.
My work with VCO has been directly shaped by my experiences in that theatre.”

“What matters most to me is that even today, soloists meet me after their premieres or call - and you know what? They’re not looking for praise. They ask what went wrong, what could be better. That’s when I understand why they’ve reached the level they’re at - because they care about improvement.
Of course, it’s also precious that they continue to trust me.”

“Let me share something: over these eighteen years, I’ve seen that no matter how big the stage or how much international recognition they’ve earned, the most nerve-wracking moment for them is stepping onto the stage of the Vilnius Congress Hall.
Here, we’ve seen the most nerves, tears, and fears - because nothing is harder than being loved at home. Or believing that you are truly needed here.”

Working with VCO’s soloists, Ibelhauptaitė chose the most difficult path for a director - that of a mentor. Observing her work today reveals a consistent process that helped her collaborators grow step by step - and sometimes take huge leaps - in their stage artistry.

Over the years, her creative output, like the “bohemians” themselves, could not be confined to simple labels. They were never just a “troupe” or “company.”
This artistic movement became a phenomenon - something intangible.

VCO is a phenomenon that, despite all odds, had to happen and spread throughout the world - so that today, we could enjoy its fruits at home.
That one night, that fleeting eternity, that will not be repeated.