Olesya Golovneva as Salome and Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Herodias in a new production of "Salome" at the Grand Théâtre de Genève

OLESYA GOLOVNEVA as Salome and TANJA ARIANE BAUMGARTNER as Herodias in a new production of Salome at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

PREMIERE: January 22, 2025

FURTHER PERFORMANCES: January 25, 27, 29, 31, and February 2, 2025

With this production, Hungarian theater and film director Kornél Mundruczó continues his collaboration with the Grand Théâtre, following The Makropulos Case (2020), Peter Eötvös' Sleepless (2022), and Christian Jost's Journey to Hope (2023). Together with Monika Korpa , who is responsible for set design and costumes, he illuminates Salome from a contemporary perspective that is not immune to psychoanalysis. Instead of the decadent power games in a Galilean palace, he relocates the action to the depraved luxury of a penthouse apartment overlooking the skyline of an opulent Babylon. Herod's family is torn apart by their prey – a Jokanaan coming "from below," whose mere existence shakes their worldview. This vision is crowned with a touch of Buñuelian surrealism, manifested in bizarre, phantasmagorical tableaux.

Under the direction of the renowned Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste , who is active in the Opernwelt is still too rarely heard, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande unfolds the full power of Richard Strauss's score. Olesya Golovneva , who embodies both the required vocal power and the elfin fragility of Salome, brings her rich sound and brilliant high notes to the role. Opposite her is Gábor Bretz , who already shone in Salzburg in 2018 as the outstanding Jokanaan in Roméo Castellucci's production. The ensemble is complemented by Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Herodias - another exaggerated, monstrous mother figure after her Clytemnestra in Elektra (2022).

Source: Grand Theatre Geneva