Losing Your Head

On May 9, the Opera Bastille saw one of the most anticipated debuts of the international operatic season: the soprano Lise Davidsen’s first Salome. Adapted from Oscar Wilde’s play, Richard Strauss’s one-act Salome depicts the Feast of Herod and the killing of John the Baptist, culminating with one of the most notoriously difficult passages in the dramatic-soprano repertoire, sealed with its infamous kiss.