The Hérodiade  project began to take shape in 1878 when Hartmann, Massenet's publisher, after rejecting Milliet's and the composer's own idea of ​​writing a love poem evoking the Song of Songs , proposed composing a play  inspired by Gustave Flaubert's famous work, Trois contes , published that year. The character of Salome had attracted many writers, including the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who had considered a play  dedicated to his mother, Hérodiade, but had never completed the work, leaving fragments that others used as models. Following in his footsteps, other authors, including Oscar Wilde, Richard Strauss, and Paul Hindemith, had written about the perverse young girl Salome and her mother, Hérodiade. However, for Massenet's work, the model was undoubtedly that of Gustave Flaubert, to which he likely added excerpts from Renan's La Vie de Jésus  , particularly those relating to the story of John the Baptist and Herod's lineage, found in chapters six and twelve. When Hartmann proposed this subject, however, he asked that he himself sign the libretto under the pseudonym Grémont, also claiming the rights to it. After a few days, Massenet, Hartmann, and Milliet left for Milan not only to attend the production of Le roi de Lahore  at La Scala, but also to arrange with Ricordi for the performance of Hérodiade in Italy. It was decided that the opera would be performed simultaneously at La Scala and the Paris Opera, and at this point, a new signature was added to the libretto, that of Zanardini as translator. Massenet then worked for two and a half years on the opera, which he orchestrated in Pourville, and in 1881 he was able to show it to the new director of the Paris Opera, Vaucorbeil, who rejected it because he had little confidence in the quality of the libretto. The disappointed composer took back the score and left without any hope of seeing his opera performed, but, as he wrote in Mes souvenirs , fortune came to his aid in the person of Calabrési, director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, who asked him precisely for Hérodiade . Massenet himself recalled this meeting and the related proposal:

Massenet/Strauss/Bonis/Schmitt

Teatro Politeama Garibaldi

Matthew Peterson, the American composer who has settled in Dalarna, weaves together his own texts about life’s challenges with fragments of poems by Dan Andersson, Gustaf Fröding, and Erik Axel Karlfeldt in a winding journey through shifting musical landscapes in his second symphony, The Wanderers, composed for the Swedish Radio Choir and Dalasinfoniettan.

The Swedish Radio Choir & Dalasinfoniettan: The Wanderers

SR Berwaldhallen

Multi-faceted works by Carola Bauckholt, Francesco Filidei and Martin Smolka form the programme of this concert evening in Graz. Together with ensemble members of Klangforum Wien, students of the master's programme “Performance Practice in Contemporary Music” (PPCM) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz demonstrate their skills and perform Bauckholt's Pacific Time, Filidei's Ballata No. 7 and Smolka's ANDĚLSKÉ SCHODY - Angel Steps. At the helm of the concert is Claire Levacher.

Claire Levacher

Events

Past events

29 - 30 May, 2026

Massenet/Strauss/Bonis/Schmitt · Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Mar 21, 2026

The Swedish Radio Choir & Dalasinfoniettan: The Wanderers · Swedish Radio Choir

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Salome by Strauss

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Conductor in Symphony No. 2 by Peterson

Swedish Radio Choir

Conductor in La tragédie de Salomé by Schmitt

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Conductor in ANDĚLSKÉ SCHODY - Angel Steps by Smolka

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Pacific Time by Bauckholt

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Ballata No. 7 by Filidei

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Hérodiade by Massenet

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Conductor in Salomé by Bonis

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

About

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