Veiled in history: Biblical story of Salome reverberates through ages onstage

By Diana Nollen

CEDAR RAPIDS - “Salome,” Richard Strauss' shocking opera that premiered in 1905 was based on Oscar Wilde's scandalous 1892 play based on a brief, bloody biblical passage that ends with John the Baptist's head on a platter.

It would be years before audiences would be allowed to again see and embrace the opera and play showcasing Salome and her dance of the seven veils that seduces her mother's husband, the ruler Herod. Enthralled, he decides to grant whatever Salome desires. With prompting from her vengeful mother, she demands the baptizer's death.

The betrayals and manipulations between Herod, Herodias and Salome create “the ultimate dysfunctional family,” says soprano Amy Johnson, a Chariton native who is performing the title role.

“If Salome was in family court today, she'd be the victim, from the psychological abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse. It's the only world she has known until she encounters John the Baptist. ... She responds with the only vocabulary she knows, which is perverse.”

Because such themes still resonate, stage director Gregory Keller of New York is placing the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre's production in the present, not in ancient days.

The one-act opera “was not written in biblical times,” Keller says, noting all the original elements of lust, greed, adultery, incest, abuse and murder “are still happening today.”

“Salome” will be performed Friday and Sunday, Jan. 17, at Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls. The larger venue is better suited for staging one of the local opera company's most daring undertakings.

“It's 90 minutes of really intense drama and intense music,” says Daniel Kleinknecht of Iowa City, the opera theater's founder and conductor and newly named resident conductor for Orchestra Iowa.

“This is the first time we've done any German late-Romantic opera. It's a very complex score,” he says. “It's difficult to sing, so it's a challenge to the singers, and in a sense, a challenge on stage with all the activity and given what happens at the end. It also calls for a very large orchestra.

“It's one of the most ambitious things we've ever done.”

That's where the Cedar Falls facility comes into play.

“A great combination of factors led us to this piece,” says Kleinknecht, who also is an associate professor music at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids. “We couldn't do it in Theatre Cedar Rapids - the (orchestra) pit isn't large enough. As we're waiting for TCR to reopen, we found ourselves needing to go back to Gallagher-Bluedorn, because it has a great pit. And because of our connection with Orchestra Iowa, it will be the orchestra for this opera.”

When casting the show, Kleinknecht says he wanted to highlight musicians with Iowa ties. He has achieved that with all four principal players.

“We found several world-class artists who come from Iowa originally and have made really great careers,” he says.

Johnson, now based in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, graduated from Grinnell College and comes from five generations of Iowans, including a great-grandfather who was a Presbyterian minister in Cedar Falls.

Coe College alumnus Jeffrey Dowd, a tenor who now sings mainly in German opera houses, will portray Herod; Sigourney native Katharine Goeldner, a mezzo-soprano who studied at the University of Iowa and now lives in Salzburg, will sing the role of Herod's scheming wife, Herodias; and Sioux City native Mark Schnaible, a bass-baritone now living in New York, will lose his head as Jochanaan, better known as John the Baptist.

This is Schnaible's first foray into the pivotal role. He sees the character as “a man of strength and faith - which plays counter to Salome, who is not a person of strength and faith.”

The challenges are many for Johnson, who has sung the title role several times.

“Whenever you play somebody less than desirable, you have to find something likable,” she says.

“It's a workout in every sense of the word - emotionally, psychologically, physically, musically. How naive she is, how petulant and conniving, changes from production to production.”

She welcomes the chance to work with new directors and their interpretations of the opera.

“It's enjoyable and stimulating,” she says. “We're never exhausted for new ideas. It's what makes live performance so special, otherwise you could just stay home and watch it on DVD.

“It's not just different directors, but different casts. A different stage partner can completely change how I react. That's why I can go to different shows and see very different things. The nuances are different from time to time.”

FAST TAKEInformation: www.cr-opera.org

What: Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre presents “Salome” by Richard Strauss

When: 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17

Where: Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, 8392 University Ave., Cedar Falls

Tickets: $34 to $12 adults, $34 to $10 ages 18 and under, through UNItix, (319) 273-4849 or www.unitix.uni.edu

Transportation: Bus from Cedar Rapids or Iowa City, $15 round-trip; details and reservations at (319) 365-7401

Discussion: Free talks with director Gregory Keller one hour before performances in Gallagher-Bluedorn's Jebe Hall

Extra:  Iowa Public Television will be taping “Salome” for broadcast on later in January