Das Salome-Prinzip

Das Salome-Prinzip is a new take on the biblical subject already famously treated by Massenet and Strauss. Schneider’s piece distinguishes itself from these works both in its smaller scale as a chamber opera and in its mode of address with regards to the content. It describes, explains Schneider, how ‘the mechanism of how party decadence, materialism and lack of genuine human exchange, warp and pervert the smallest attempt at being honest and idealistic in the face of a narcissistic society. Salome who, in the first half of the opera, finds in Jochanaan a positive role model among all the vanity and stupidity, becomes, in the second half, a monster herself when her urge to communicate is frustrated: “If you had looked at me, you would have loved me!”’