Which composer wrote the opera Salome, based on Oscar Wilde’s play and premiered in 1905?

Richard Strauss wrote the opera Salome, based on Oscar Wilde’s play and premiered in 1905.

Strauss composed Salome to a German translation of Wilde’s French drama. The opera premiered at the Dresden Court Opera on 9 December 1905, conducted by Ernst von Schuch. Its biblical subject centers on Salome, the daughter of Herodias, and her demand for the head of John the Baptist after performing the Dance of the Seven Veils.

The work caused controversy because of its erotic and violent subject matter, but it quickly became an important modern opera. Its one-act structure and concentrated orchestral language show Strauss moving beyond the large-scale tone poems of his earlier career. The final scene, often called the “Salome Dance,” is one of the opera’s most challenging and famous passages. Wilde’s play and Strauss’s opera share the story, but the operatic score adds a powerful orchestral dimension.