No spoiler here, everybody knows that there is no happy ending at Salome’s story.

Salome was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. He ruled the kingdom of Judea with his other three brothers. Herodias divorced and married Herod Antipas who became infatuated by his step-daughter, Salome, and it is when the story earns interest. Herod demands a dance, the seven veils, and after constant begging, she obliges with one condition: her wish had to be granted. He agrees, she dances, and requests the head of Saint John the Baptist on a silver tray. The revenge of unrequited love. Eventually, Herod honours his word and Saint John becomes a casualty. A terrifying act. So much, that the Bible does not dare to name her; she is referred as the daughter of Herodias.

No wonder, it has inspired many artists, including Oscar Wilde, on which the Strauss opera is based on. The play was banned in London while being rehearsed as biblical stories were not allowed to put on a stage at that time, but it was premiered in Paris in 1896. Strauss got hold of the play at some point and decided to translated into a one-act opera. Its mix of biblical scenes, sex and murder shocked audiences at the premiere in Dresden in 1905.

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The new production of Salome’s Strauss at the English National Opera is daring, exhilarating and ends in a heart bombing finale by the Scottish mezzo-soprano Allison Cook. She seems to be at ease on edgy roles as when Cook played the role of the Duchess of Argyll in NY City Opera production of Powder Her Face. The Duchess was caught on camera giving a blow job to a man who was not her husband.

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Acclaimed Australian director Adena Jacobs makes her UK debut with an all-female creative team. This dreamlike journey through Salome’s psyche, evoked with powerful abstract visual images, shows a claustrophobic space in which female desire replicates the violence of the patriarchal world. ENO Music Director Martyn Brabbins takes the conductor’s baton in his third production as Music Director. Jacobs comments:

“This production of Salome is mythic, feminine and brutally contemporary. Imagined through Salome’s perspective, Strauss’s opera becomes a fever dream, a dark fantasy, and an examination of patriarchal power and control. My approach to Salome is through the lens of trauma; the ways in which cycles of violence have inscribed themselves on to the bodies and psyches of these characters.”

Multi-award-winning designer Marg Horwell makes her UK debut after a much-lauded career in Australian opera and theatre. The mise en scène is visually perfect and highly effective on communicating drama and satire. Lighting design is by Lucy Carter, whose many awards and plaudits for work including Oil at the Almeida Theatre (2016) and ENO’s own The Dream of Gerontius at the Southbank Centre (2017) have made her one of London’s most sought-after lighting designers. Australian choreographer Melanie Lane completes this all-female creative team.

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Finally, a superb team of voices. English bass David Soar sings the prophet Jokanaan, Northern Irish tenor Michael Colvin sings Herod, one of ENO’s most admired artists, Susan Bickley, sings Herodias, wife of Herod, and the award-winning ENO Chorus, continuing an ENO practice of featuring Chorus members in principal roles from the Studio Live programme.

Salome open last Friday 28 September at 7.30pm at the London Coliseum for 7 performances: 28 September 3, 6, 12, 18, 23 October at 7.30pm and 20 October at 6.30pm.

500 tickets for £20 or less are available for each performance. Tickets start from £12*

For more information, please visit ENO website on www.eno.org