(complete)
Carlo Dolci, La figlia di Erodiade (1660)
Salomé .......................................
Suzanne Sarroca
Hérodiade
................................. Lucienne Delvaux
Jean ......................................................
Paul Finel
Hérode
........................................ Robert
Massard
Phanuel ...........................................
Jacques Mars
Choeurs et Orchestre Nationale de la RTF
Pierre
Dervaux, cond.
French Radio, February 1, 1963
Following the success in France and italy of Le Roi de Lahore,
Massenet's publisher, Georges Hartmann, suggested Flaubert's conte as
the source of his next opera. The original plan was to premiere it
simultaneously in Paris and Milan but Auguste Vaucorbeil, the new director of
the Paris Opera found the plot incoherent and rejected it. The opera was then
premiered in Brussels in December 1881, with great success. The Italian
premiere at La Scala followed two months later.
For a performance at the Théâtre Italien in Paris, in 1884,
Massenet expanded and re-arranged the score better to suit the abilities of
three stars, Victor Maurel and the brothers Jean and Edouard de Rezske. It was
a success, soon to be repeated in other cities on both sides of the Atlantic.
Since then, it never left the French répertoire, though the Paris Opera
didn't stage it until 1921.
Complete Libretto