Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Oh, C'mon

The really obscene moment in Salome is when she's making love to the decapitated head of John the Baptist, not the Dance of the Seven Veils, even when the soprano gets naked.

6 comments:

Kyle L said...

Does it make me a perv now that I've lost some interest in seeing it? I had it written down in my calendar because I've never seen Salome, not even on DVD. Anyway, I was sorta on the fence of seeing it at the local movie theater this weekend. But what I'm really looking forward to is Doctor Atomic.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Hahaha, well, I think many people would be interested in a glimpse of the world's greatest living soprano in the altogether. You might as well go if you can get a ticket; the production was well reviewed, and she's still the world's greatest living soprano.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Yeah, I thought my $26 ticket included what the older generation calls "a full view of lake and ocean."

But I love the idea of a "family friendly" showing of Salome. Take your stepdaughter!

Parents, just wait for the Magic Flute to show up. Because it will.

People are very literal minded about what is "obscene".

Lisa Hirsch said...

Yes, and there no such thing as a kid-friendly performance of Salome.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure "kid-friendly" and the name Richard Strauss belong in the same paragraph, actually. But for a very interesting take on the Salome narrative--drawing heavily on Wilde--check out the silent film version

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013571/

starring the remarkable Alla Nazimova.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Damn, not at Netflix. Will have to check Reel Video.