VISIBLE on stage in “Salome”, though occasionally veiled by Oriental  curtains, was Brian Thompson’s amazing backdrop of animal carcasses. 

It set the scene perfectly for this new production of the Richard Strauss opera  by Gale Edwards, whose interpretation stresses the decadence of the world of Herod the Great, a world of pedophilia, incest, unbridled lust and bitter love.

Opera Australia’s tight ensemble was in fine form, with the thrilling baritone of John Wegner as the prophet Jokanaan (John the Baptist) rising from below, in contrast with the sometimes harsh strains of Cheryl Barker as Salome.

Prowling around the stage like a slightly drunk fury and her consort were Jacqueline Dark  and John Pickering as Herodias and Herod.

In no way is this opera “normal.” The libretto by Strauss is largely taken from Oscar Wilde’s French language play “Salome”, and shows a strangely anachronistic strangely, as representatives of Judaism, Hinduism, Greek Orthodoxy and Catholicism debate the nature of prophethood even as we hear Jesus is preaching in Galilee.

All the while, the more secular characters, less impressed by prophethood, are obsessed about the strangeness of the moon.

Director Edwards is set a considerable task in making sense of all this, and wisely goes for the dysfunctional family approach, with Salome a kind of grown up lost teenager.

As Jokanaan rages from below about the Herculean sexual achievements of Herodias, above, all is uncertainty and apprehension, summed up by a fine performance from David Corcoran as the young Syrian captain who kills himself on observing where the princess’s obsession is taking her.

The jury will be out on the director’s decision to use professional dancers, choreographed by the formidable Kelley Abbey, to represent most of Salome’s seven veils. Edwards justifies her approach in terms of the central “power” theme of the work, arguing that “from the geisha girl to the call girl it’s not difficult to identify the roles women assume to  ‘pleasure’ men.”

To frequent giggles from the house, Salome appears to Herod as Marilyn Monroe, a prepubescent schoolgirl, a Madonna/whore and so on, appealing to aspects of his sensuality. After six “veils” have fallen, Cheryl Barker appears as the seventh. Justify it as one may, it looked more like a directorial solution to the likelihood that Cheryl Barker can’t dance.

It didn’t matter in the long run. In the sensational ending – and words like sensational, lascivious, decadent, devastating, come to mind – Edwards and Barker are on certain ground. I wish Salome hadn’t used the head of Jokanaan as a handball, but it added to the element of shock that brings about Herod’s final command.