The last time R. Strauss's Salome was performed at the Met was 20 years ago. This one-act tragedy, with its magnificent orchestral music and intricate arias, has been directed by one of Europe's leading theatre and opera directors, the vaudevillian Claus Guth.
 The last time R. Strauss's Salome was performed at the Met was 20 years ago. This time, one of Europe's leading theatre and opera directors, the vaudevillian Claus Guth, has taken on the one-act tragedy with its magnificent orchestral music and complex arias. Guth brings the biblical story of Princess Salome, the daughter of King Herod of Judea, who claims the head of John the Baptist, already translated through the wild imagination of Oscar Wilde, to the Victorian era. Psychological insights, vivid symbolism and subtle moral nuances give the work a new breath and open up interpretive spaces that have not yet been explored.

One of the most difficult and challenging roles in the opera's vast repertoire - Salome - is taken by the soprano from South Africa, Elza van den Heever. She will be joined on stage by Swedish baritone Peter Mattei (Jochanaan, or John the Baptist), German tenor Gerhard Siegel (King Herod) and American mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung (the latter's wife).