The New York Times
By Joshua Barone
SALZBURG, Austria — So much almost happens in Romeo Castellucci’s new production of Strauss’s “Salome,” playing at the Salzburg Festival through Aug. 27 and streaming online at medici.tv through Oct. 28.
In this staging, it’s as if desire were a dissonant chord torturously on the verge of resolution. King Herod wants a dance from Salome that never happens; Salome wants the head of Jochanaan, but it never comes; viewers want to make sense of Mr. Castellucci’s images, but they likely never will.
In place of the classic scenes audiences might expect, Mr. Castellucci delivers a stream of enigmas. During Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils, the entire cast leaves the stage except for her. She lies on Herod’s throne — a brass cube with the letters “saxa” (Latin for “stones”) carved in it — in a fetal position, until a stone cube descends from above and seems to swallow her.
In the final monologue, Salome — sung with shocking ferocity by the Lithuanian soprano Asmik Gregorian — delivers her cri de coeur while standing in a shallow pool of milk. With her are two objects: the head of a horse, which earlier had served as an avatar for Jochanaan, and the headless corpse of Jochanaan, sitting upright in a chair.