Starring Cheryl Barker, John Wegner et al; Opera Australia
Sydney Opera House, October 12

“She is a monster, your daughter,growls Herod, and from the moment this monster demurely asks for the head of John the Baptist onwards, Cheryl Barker gives a suitably terrifying performance as Strauss’ morally depraved and sexually confused teenage siren. If you can make it through to the final half hour of Gale Edward’s incoherent grab-bag of a production you will find yourself amply compensated, but that’s quite a big “if”.

Edwards’ version of Salome isn’t particularly shocking (it has far less blood than John Doyle’s recent Lucia) but crucially it lacks any overarching idea, coming across as a series of problem-solving exercises rather than a cohesive piece of theatre. The notorious Dance of the Seven Veils is a good example. Here Strauss has provided a single sexually charged musical arc, from slow, sexy start through to percussively frenzied ending. Edwards spares Barker the nine-minute choreographic ordeal in favour of presenting a series of typical male fantasies for Herod’s evident arousal. Not a bad solution – the pole dancer and Marilyn Monroe sequences work moderately well – but the French maid...