Salome, an Obsessive Compulsive Myth, from Oscar Wilde to Richard Strauss

No female character, more than Salome, carries in herself so much power to debunk and rebut any establishment. Salome is deranged by an obsessive compulsive disorder that leads her to touch everything she desires, repeat things over and over again and count things around her. Oscar Wilde uses these elements to create in French, and then in English in his own translation of the play, a style conveying and expressing these traits. Salome is the archetypical monster in Christianity. She provokes Herod, John himself and everyone else around her and pushes them to the extreme limits of decency. And yet she is killed like a plain outlaw by some soldier on Herod’s order. This exploration of the relation between Salome and John the Baptist leads to a deep reflection on the value of life when it is entirely dominated by obsessive carnal desires. That also leads to an end that looks like some form of expiatory justice. Richard Strauss amplifies the text and the subject with his music and his German libretto