Workshop for an Immersive Production of Richard Strauss’ Salome
Conceived and Directed by David Levine
August 13, 2025
Invited Audience
Presented by the Crossing the Line Festival 2025
This four-day developmental workshop at Arrow St Arts explores choreography, sound, staging and video of Scene 4 of Richard Strauss’ 90-minute opera Salome, concluding in an informal showing for an invited audience.
The production uses 360° audio to present an intimate, immersive, and intense audience experience. Based on the play by Oscar Wilde, it recounts how the biblical princess Salome falls in love with John the Baptist, and, once rebuffed, demands his head on a silver platter.
In this production, the audience and singers share the playing space, surrounded by a dynamic recording of Strauss’ full orchestration. This proximity allows the audience to experience the psychological nuances of Wilde’s play and Strauss’ music in a totally new way, as well as offering them unprecedented access to the singers themselves.
This workshop is supported by Harvard University through the Adrian Cheng and Jennifer Dean Fund for Innovation in the Arts, the Dean's Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship, the Provostial Fund, Theater , Dance & Media (TDM), the Department of English, the Film Studies Center, and the Carpenter Center. It includes participation from concentrators, recent graduates, and Harvard staff as interns, assistants, and performers.
Creative Credits
Concept & Direction: David Levine
Music Director: Simone Guiliani
Vocal Director and Conductor: Joseph Bozich
Choreography: Anna Thérèse Witenberg
Sound Supervisor: Mike Flannery
Audio Engineer: Garth MacAleavey
Video Design: Andrea Merkx
Subtitles: Katie Soule
Line Producer: Michelle Stern
Producer: Ariana Smart Truman
Assistant Director: Katie Runions
Cast
Herodius: Sarah Heltzel
Herod: Matthew DiBattista
Jew#1: Neal Ferreira
Jew#2: Morgan Mastrangelo
Jew#3: Kartik Ayysola
Jew#4: Srinivasan Raghuraman
Jew#5: Brian Church
Nazarene #1: Michael Galvin
Nazarene #2: Robert Kleinertz
Salome: Sol Kim-Bentley
Jochanaan: Devon Russo
First Soldier: Jacob Cooper
Dancers: Juli Brandano, Caitlin Canty, Benin Gardner, Rachel Gill, Elinor Hitt, Miranda Lawson