2) With respect to the question of French-language versions of the opera, Shaun Greenleaf was kind enough to send along materials from a performance at the Martina Franca Festival, date unspecified, with performers unknown to me. An accompanying essay by the festival’s Artistic Director, Sergio Segalini, relates that even after the completion and premiere of the German-language version, Strauss wanted an edition that conformed to Oscar Wilde’s French original, even though that would involve adaptation of the music itself. He turned to Romain Rolland for assistance with this, and such an edition was actually completed and produced in 1907, first in a small Parisian theatre and then at the Monnaie in Brussels, after which it seems to have disappeared. Other French-language efforts were made, translations from the German and so reconciled with its vocal line. Among them, one attributed to Jean de Marliave was taken by André Messager for the Paris Opéra, and seems to have become the French standard for many years. It is presumably that version, then, that was sung by Marjorie Lawrence at the Opéra and on her recording of the final scene—the question I was speculating on in my article.

3) Finally, a live first-hand report on the disposition of the First Nazarene. I had tried to recall when, in the stagings I have seen, the two Nazarenes and the five Jews clear the scene, since there are no indications of that in the stage directions, yet it seems as if I’ve always seen Salome alone onstage with the head, as would be entirely appropriate, and have assumed this usually happens when Herod and Herodias, unable to watch, re-enter the palace. It happens that Daniel Thomas Berry, a professional bass, sang the First Nazarene’s stage-commanding few minutes twenty-five years ago at the Knoxville Opera. He relates that when he’d finished his scene in rehearsal, he was told to go upstage and watch until the end of the opera (in deep shadow, we hope?). “You have no idea,” he writes, “how long the final scene goes on unless you’ve had to lean on a staff, motionless, watching the thing.” Sounds like a stage director with no time and bigger things to worry about, but I guess I’ll have to resort to videos of the real Salome (not Klaus Guth’s) to see how others have solved it.

My thanks to Messrs. Kaufmann, Greenleaf, and Berry for these very helpful responses.

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NEXT TIME: I’ll be writing about the unprecedented appearance of a guest opera company up at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. That would be the Heartbeat Opera, whose Fidelio I considered back in that same post of 6/10/22 in which I’d noted Zachary Woolfe’s appointment as chief Times music critic. This time, Heartbeat is seeing what it can do with, or to, Samuel Barber’s Vanessa—a choice that makes sense only in the context of this formerly eminent festival’s newest attempt to find its footing. There will be ample fodder for commentary. I’ll be taking a little vacation time in August, so Friday, Sept. 5, will be the target date.

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