Salome

The great Birgit Nilsson gives a spectacular performance as Strauss’s biblical princess. Walter Cassel is the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan, the object of Salome’s desire. When he rejects her advances, Salome has no hesitation in exacting her murderous revenge. The infamous final scene, in which she kisses Jochanaan’s severed head, is one of the most searing endings in all of opera—and one of Nilsson’s legendary performances. Karl Böhm, a protégée and collaborator of Strauss, leads a authoritative, colorful, and impassioned rendition of the score, in a performance that also stars Karl Liebl as Herod, Irene Dalis as Herodias, and George Shirley as Narraboth.