VIENNA — The most infamous part of Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera “Salome” is the Dance of the Seven Veils, a striptease performed by a character meant to be just 16. It’s a deliberately provocative gesture that helped make “Salome” the most scandalous opera of its time.

Yet there is more at stake in the work than a soprano getting undressed. A bold new production at the Theater an der Wien here uses puppets to explore the inner landscape of the work’s protagonist, offering a novel twist on an ambiguous figure: Is Salome a bloodthirsty seductress, a girl experiencing a sexual awakening, or something in between?

In Nikolaus Habjan’s new staging, which runs through Jan. 30, both the protagonist and the object of her desire — the prophet John the Baptist — are portrayed by puppets designed and crafted by the director in his signature, highly expressive style. With their pasty skin and cartoonishly large eyes, they have hypnotic intensity.