« Tuning in and Tuning out » New Paths to Classical Music: Strauss, Wilde & the Forbidden #2

In this episode we go to the opera! We listen to parts of the opera Salome by Richard Strauss, which was based on the play of the same name by Oscar Wilde. We also think about the forbidden. Both the play and the opera were banned when they were first released and Wilde himself was punished for his forbidden behavior. What themes and stories arise out of this troublesome story…what music does it create.

This show not only thinks about who, how and why we can or should listen to classical music today but also who speaks about it and performs it and how this can be challenged and understood. What perspectives or histories are forgotten from the canon? It looks at the broader context of a composer's work and looks around at what was happening at the time it was written, what has happened since and how we could listen and interpret it today. Where did this music emerge from, what was it doing musically and why could that be interesting ? It eschews traditional ways of talking and educating about classical music and looks for a subversive way round the side door and into the concert hall.