Will Rilakkuma appear in Dresden Opera House's "Salome"?!

On October 10th, at the Dresden State Opera1I went to see Salome by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) at the Opera House in Tokyo. I hadn't done any research beforehand, but I happened to see it when I passed by, so I quickly got tickets. I don't watch operas that often, but since Salome was being performed at the theater where it premiered and I happened to be there, I couldn't help but see it.

The Dresden State Opera is Germany's oldest opera house, where Richard Wagner served as conductor from 1843 to 1849. It is also known as the place where "The Flying Dutchman" and "Tannhäuser" were premiered. Richard Strauss also premiered "Salome," "Elektra," and "Der Rosenkavalier" here, making it one of the leading theaters in Germany.

Semper Oper Dresden (photo by @_nat)

 

A theatre's box office is usually located in the theatre itself, but in individual theatres it may be in a building on the opposite side of the square to the theatre.

The ticket office is in this building on the opposite side of the square. (photo by @_nat)

 

"Salome"Op. 54" is a one-act opera composed by Richard Strauss between 1903 and 1905. It premiered at this theater on December 1, 1905. It uses leitmotifs, extensive use of chromaticism, and an expanded sense of tonality, which was very innovative for music at the time and seems to represent decadence.

Well, in one word, this play was very strange. It was fine that the clothes were modern, but it was quite surreal that Narraboth was wearing a bear costume like Rilakkuma. It amplified the madness of Salome, who grew up in an abnormal family and became a daughter while retaining her childish possessiveness and ferocity, and in a way, it could be said that it was effective. Salome kissed Jonathan's neck, then placed the head on her bed as if she was putting a doll to sleep, and slept next to it. Then, with Herod's command, "Kill that woman!", the stage suddenly went dark and the curtain closed.

You can get a glimpse of this in the YouTube video below.2

By the way, this is what the inside of the theater looked like.

The audience at Semper Oper Dresden (photo by @_nat)

 

The theater was reduced to rubble after air raids during World War II, but it was rebuilt well. If it were in Japan, they would probably build something different.

The foyer looks like this.

Semper Oper Dresden (photo by @_nat)

 

When the opera finished and I went outside, it was already pitch black.

Semper Oper Dresden (photo by @_nat)

Germany-related articles

Music related articles

footnote

  1. Its official name is the Semper Opera. It is not a national opera house but a Saxon state opera house.
  2. The "Dance of the Seven Veils" was performed by seven dancers performing separately.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.For details of how to process comment data, please click here.