0:00:03 > 0:00:07For centuries opera was at the heart of European society.
0:00:07 > 0:00:12And in the late 19th century, during a turbulent time of war
0:00:12 > 0:00:17and revolutions, a new opera house was being built here in Paris.
0:00:17 > 0:00:24One night in 1858 Emperor Napoleon III was travelling in his carriage to the opera.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26All of a sudden, bombs were thrown.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30There'd been Italian revolutionaries hiding in the crowd.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35The next day Napoleon III decided to exercise one of the perks
0:00:35 > 0:00:40of being the Emperor. He decided to build a new opera house.
0:00:40 > 0:00:46The Opera Garnier, made Paris the operatic capital of Europe.
0:00:46 > 0:00:52I've always been fascinated by how opera and history go hand in hand like this.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55We've sort of forgotten this today,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58now that opera's become a specialised interest,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00but opera used to be centre stage,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04it used to be right at the heart of historical events.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07I've picked some of the best-loved operas to show you how.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12I'm going to visit the historic cities that shaped my operas,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16explore the colourful cast of characters who composed them,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19and show you how music can give us a peephole to look back
0:01:19 > 0:01:22into tumultuous times,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25with the help of conductor Antonio Pappano.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30I'll be exploring the nuts and bolts of the most famous arias,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32duets and ensembles in the operatic repertoire.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44In this episode I'll visit France and Germany,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48to look at a new kind of opera that swept away conventions
0:01:48 > 0:01:51is in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54One that delved into the realities of people's lives,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56especially those of women,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00and their deepest desires for freedom, identity and sex.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05Paris, where Bizet and Puccini captured the spirit
0:02:05 > 0:02:08of bohemianism that swept through the city.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14SHE SINGS: "Habanera" by Georges Bizet
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Bayreuth, where Wagner premiered a total work of art
0:02:23 > 0:02:26to transform German identity.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30SHE SINGS: "Ride Of The Valkyries" by Richard Wagner
0:02:35 > 0:02:39And Dresden, where Richard Strauss premiered a work
0:02:39 > 0:02:42that explored, "perverted female pleasure".
0:02:42 > 0:02:46SHE SINGS: The final scene from Salome by Richard Strauss
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Napoleon III's opera house opened in 1875
0:03:08 > 0:03:13and was designed to be a display of imperial pomp and grandeur.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17Well-heeled Parisians revelled in what's known as
0:03:17 > 0:03:20the Belle Epoque - the beautiful era -
0:03:20 > 0:03:22a time of glitz and glamour,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25when Paris was the centre of Western culture.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30And if you were an aristocrat or even a nouveau riche,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32and the Opera Garnier was the place to be.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35It was like a sort of permanent Cannes Film Festival.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Your carriage would drop you off out there,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43then you'd enter up the grand staircase.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46In an ideal world you'd come to every performance,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50that's three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53In the foyer there were these magnificent mirrors for you to
0:03:53 > 0:03:57check out your dress and possibly your diamonds,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01that you might very well have got from Paris's most upmarket
0:04:01 > 0:04:04jewellers, situated, not by accident, right next door.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11The French fashion was for grand opera, lavish productions
0:04:11 > 0:04:15and spectacle, but most of the audience weren't watching the stage,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18they were looking at each other.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Garnier, the architect, deliberately designed the interior
0:04:21 > 0:04:24for people to see and be seen.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Whether the acoustics inside the auditorium were any good or not,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Garnier admitted was down to chance alone.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36The best boxes, like this one,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39were reserved for the members of the Jockey Club -
0:04:39 > 0:04:43that's a sort of Bullingdon Club, but for grown-ups.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47It was essential that each opera contained a ballet section,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50so that the club members could identify
0:04:50 > 0:04:54which of the pretty ballerinas they wanted to...
0:04:54 > 0:04:56..make the acquaintance of.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00The dancers had their own special room behind the stage,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02the foyer de la danse,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06and that's where the artist Degas would go to paint them.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09That's also where the club members would go after the show
0:05:09 > 0:05:11in order to meet the girls' "mothers",
0:05:11 > 0:05:15to negotiate the right fee for making an introduction.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20For the Garnier's prosperous audience,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22everything was just as it should be.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27But the ballets and operas they enjoyed rarely reflected
0:05:27 > 0:05:30the daily struggles of most Parisians,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33or their desire for the same freedoms the elite enjoyed.
0:05:34 > 0:05:39Later in 1875, though, a French composer called Georges Bizet
0:05:39 > 0:05:43did put people from the margins at centre stage.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52His opera Carmen featured a heroine who,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56unusually for the time, is very much in charge.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Bizet was part of the French realism movement,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03pioneered by writers such as Balzac and Zola.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08And for Bizet - here he is - inspiration came from a woman
0:06:08 > 0:06:13who'd escaped Paris's underworld of sex for sale.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16These scratch marks were made by courtesans testing out
0:06:16 > 0:06:20their diamond gifts to make sure that they weren't paste.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25A lot of people thought that the character of Carmen was based on
0:06:25 > 0:06:30a real life notorious ex-courtesan called Celeste Venard.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34She did awfully well. She ended up married to a Count.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38She met Bizet on a train. He was 27 and she was 41.
0:06:38 > 0:06:44"Moderation," Celeste used to say, "forms no part of my nature.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46"Passion devours me.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50"I have always been capricious and proud."
0:06:52 > 0:06:57Which sounds very much like Bizet's Carmen, a story set in Spain,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00but which would resonate strongly in Paris.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06Carmen is a working-class girl with a job in a factory.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Carmen is a gypsy, she's a free spirit, she has little respect
0:07:10 > 0:07:15for social conventions, and she's a free spirit sexually too.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19What she likes to do is to find a man who has no apparent interest
0:07:19 > 0:07:23in her at all, and then to seduce him.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33And that is exactly what Carmen does to a soldier called Don Jose,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37in one of opera's most memorable moments.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Now, you hear this rhythm, we all know this rhythm.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Well, this is a habanera.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49It's a Cuban dance, a contredanse.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51You hear that...
0:07:51 > 0:07:53Da-rum-pum-pum.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Now, she sings over that, likening...
0:07:58 > 0:08:01..love to a rebellious bird that you can't catch.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21This describes the character of Carmen to a T
0:08:21 > 0:08:24because the minute you think you have her, she's off,
0:08:24 > 0:08:30and this is brilliantly captured by Bizet in this sultry triplets here.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Incredible, how this piece is like a slow burn.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51It is a sensual dance.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54You can feel the hips in this music,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56but it becomes more dangerous.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18And there's a real menace in her as well as an incredible playfulness,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21and that makes the complexity of the character,
0:09:21 > 0:09:23that's what draws us to her,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27it's what opera audiences have been trying to figure out for so long.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Who is this woman?
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Carmen was commissioned for Paris's Opera Comique.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50The audience here wasn't as louche as the Garnier lot,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53they were from the respectable bourgeoisie.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58Today there's a statue of Bizet's Carmen in the foyer,
0:09:58 > 0:10:03but in 1875 an opera featuring a sexy Spanish gypsy
0:10:03 > 0:10:07who also ran a smuggling racket wasn't ideal for the clientele.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12Bizet had to fight the management to get his story staged,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15but the premiere went ahead on 3rd March.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19The first performance of Carmen didn't go particularly well.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23During the intervals, all the audience were overheard
0:10:23 > 0:10:26muttering the words, "immoral", and "scandalous".
0:10:26 > 0:10:29When Bizet walked around the theatre, everybody,
0:10:29 > 0:10:34from the director to the doorkeeper, turned their backs on him.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38It seems that the audience couldn't get past
0:10:38 > 0:10:42their assumption that the character of Carmen must be a prostitute.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48But that isn't the only possible explanation of what Carmen's all about.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Bizet exclaimed, "Don't you see that these bourgeois have not
0:10:52 > 0:10:55"understood a word of the work that I've written to them."
0:10:55 > 0:10:59So, what could Bizet have been getting at?
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Well, during the Paris Commune in 1871,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09working-class revolutionaries briefly took over the city.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Their main headquarters was here at the Hotel de Ville, the City Hall.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20After the Commune was suppressed an enterprising printer produced this map,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23showing all the buildings that had been damaged and destroyed.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Look, it's a guide to the ruins of Paris.
0:11:26 > 0:11:32It says here that the City Hall was entirely destroyed in 1871.
0:11:32 > 0:11:38By 1875, you could still see the scars of this upon the city.
0:11:43 > 0:11:49By then, any direct mention of the Commune in operas or plays was still banned.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53The authorities were terrified of the forceful working-class women
0:11:53 > 0:11:57of the Commune, who'd even helped hold the barricades.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00A myth arose of the petroleuses,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03female Communards who'd burnt down buildings.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09So we've got this myth of the fearsome lady fire thrower,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11how does that appear in the story of Carmen?
0:12:11 > 0:12:15- She's very often described as being like an animal.- An animal!
0:12:15 > 0:12:19And there are references, too, in the libretto,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22and this was a kind of language that was very often used
0:12:22 > 0:12:25to describe the Communard women.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27It was a way of dehumanising them.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Delphine, tell me some of the other ways that you can see
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Carmen as a lady Communard?
0:12:32 > 0:12:37The word "liberte" is repeated time and time again.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41That, too, relates very closely to some of the ideas of the Commune,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44and particularly of Communard women,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47who were very much against the idea of marriage,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49which they saw as enslaving them,
0:12:49 > 0:12:51and preferred the idea of free unions
0:12:51 > 0:12:54so they wanted much greater equality in their relationships.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58And would you say that Carmen's seduction of the soldier
0:12:58 > 0:13:01- had particular meaning?- Absolutely.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04We know that a number of soldiers from the Republican army
0:13:04 > 0:13:07did defect at the time of the Commune,
0:13:07 > 0:13:12they refused to fire on the citizens and joined their ranks.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16In Bizet's opera Don Jose spends time in prison for Carmen
0:13:16 > 0:13:19and then deserts the army.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24In Don Jose's Act II aria, we have something that is
0:13:24 > 0:13:28completely different from the dances of Act I,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31something more symphonic.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07This is an incredibly sensual
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and emotional piece of music.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17It's not frivolous, as a lot of the music in Act I tends to be.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51This is something really deep
0:14:51 > 0:14:56because he somehow goes through a psychological churning...
0:14:58 > 0:15:01..to be able to tell her that...
0:15:01 > 0:15:03he loves her.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34Carmen abandons Don Jose for a handsome matador.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36And though we'll never really know
0:15:36 > 0:15:39if Bizet invokes the commune deliberately, his heroine's
0:15:39 > 0:15:44fate is as bloody as that of the female communards she resembles.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49By the 19th century, in art and culture,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51women were allowed to be heroines.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54They were allowed to be strong and courageous.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57And you can see Carmen as part of this trend.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00You can really see that she's a proto-feminist.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04But even these new heroines aren't allowed to go too far.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Basically, they have to die in the end.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12In serious, tragic operas, they die in all sorts of ridiculous ways.
0:16:12 > 0:16:18They get strangled, or shot, or thrown into vats of boiling oil.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And, in Bizet's opera, Carmen gets killed by Don Jose.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25She gets stabbed.
0:16:25 > 0:16:26SHE SIGHS
0:16:26 > 0:16:27MUSIC CRESCENDOS
0:16:30 > 0:16:34But Bizet had managed to turn a complicated, flesh and blood,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38female character into a tragic heroine.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42And his own fate was rather tragic, too.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Shortly after Carmen's opening-night,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Bizet died of a heart attack after a swim in this river.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54Tchaikovsky, the composer, rightly predicted that in 10 years,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Carmen would be the most popular opera in the world.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02But poor Bizet never lived to see it.
0:17:02 > 0:17:03And he was only 37.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14Carmen had shown that opera could explore every area of society.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17She had proudly called herself a bohemian,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20an unconventional, free spirit.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24And, during the second half of the 19th century, La Vie De Boheme -
0:17:24 > 0:17:28the bohemian life - became very fashionable amongst younger,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32middle-class people, looking for more in life than making money.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39In 1895, it would prompt an opera that immortalised the lives
0:17:39 > 0:17:42and loves of a group of bohemian friends in Paris.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50These bourgeois Bohemians liked to behave eccentrically,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54drink too much, explore their own sexuality.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59They also liked to hang out here, in the Jardin du Luxembourg.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02It's said that a woman on her own couldn't sit on a bench here
0:18:02 > 0:18:03for more than two minutes
0:18:03 > 0:18:07without some Bohemian coming and chatting her up.
0:18:07 > 0:18:08- Oh, hello.- Hello.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10SHE LAUGHS
0:18:10 > 0:18:17Back in the 1840s, this man here, Henry Murger, wrote stories
0:18:17 > 0:18:21and a play about this lifestyle that would inspire a generation.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23"Bohemia," Murger wrote,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27"only exists and is only possible in Paris."
0:18:35 > 0:18:40Bohemians liked to live in the Latin Quarter, or here in Montmartre.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Most of them wanted to be artists of some kind.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46But making a living like that isn't easy, even when
0:18:46 > 0:18:50you're a genius, like the poet Baudelaire or the painter Renoir.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54So, most Bohemians lived in poverty in freezing garrets.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59However, if you want to be an artist, it really helps
0:18:59 > 0:19:00if you look like one.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04There was a fashion for having hollow eyes,
0:19:04 > 0:19:09for being generally quite emaciated, for having high cheekbones.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11It also helped if you had a melancholy disposition,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and if you wore a lot of black.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini had had his own bohemian phase
0:19:20 > 0:19:24in his youth, when he'd been a penniless student in Milan.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28He later romanticised this time in his life.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31He and his flatmates didn't have enough money to eat out.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35And the landlord of the garret where they lived had forbidden cooking.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Puccini liked to tell the story of how he would play tempestuous music
0:19:41 > 0:19:45on the piano in order to cover up the sound of his flatmates
0:19:45 > 0:19:47secretly frying eggs.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54Puccini traded in cold attics for fast cars when he became
0:19:54 > 0:19:57a successful composer but he remained nostalgic
0:19:57 > 0:19:59for his bohemian years.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03And, in 1895, when he came across Murger's work,
0:20:03 > 0:20:07Puccini wrote a musical masterpiece, La Boheme.
0:20:07 > 0:20:08So, let's meet the characters.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16The 19th century was the age of postcards.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20They were cheap to buy, easy to send, and really great to collect.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25This whole collection here are all on the theme of La Boheme.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Here's the hero, Rodolfo.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32He lives in a garret, that's where he writes his grand dramas.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36In the same building lives Mimi,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38she's another romantic soul.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41She ekes out a living as a seamstress.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45One night, Mimi knocks on Rodolfo's door.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49She wants to borrow a match to light her candle.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52What could possibly happen next?
0:20:52 > 0:20:56Well, Mimi and Rodolfo fall in love.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14Puccini was interested in a style of opera writing which was
0:21:14 > 0:21:16called verismo.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26Verismo has to do with that which is real,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29that which is true,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31that which is modern.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36In Mimi's Act I aria, we get the normal hesitancy of...
0:21:37 > 0:21:39..everyday conversation.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15But, then, unexpectedly, she talks about the end of winter
0:22:15 > 0:22:17and the coming of spring.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23And, with the thaw, the music becomes warm, and becomes symphonic.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25The orchestra's playing the tune with her.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08And, with this passionate outburst, really, it's something
0:23:08 > 0:23:10so romantic, and so...
0:23:12 > 0:23:16..I would dare to say cinematographic. And it's so real.
0:23:21 > 0:23:22Genius.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Women like Mimi were familiar characters in 19th-century Paris.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36They were often country girls who'd moved to the capital
0:23:36 > 0:23:38to work in the clothing industry.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Once in the big city, these young women, known as grisettes,
0:23:43 > 0:23:46could make the most of their new freedoms.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Grisettes are clearly very popular in 19th-century culture.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52We've got all these pictures,
0:23:52 > 0:23:54we've got all of these books.
0:23:54 > 0:23:55Why was that?
0:23:55 > 0:24:02Because, I think that she is a mirror of the new society.
0:24:02 > 0:24:03It's a democratic society.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06She wants to have money, you know,
0:24:06 > 0:24:11to have freedom, you know, to be independent.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Is this a student coming in through the window of her garret?
0:24:14 > 0:24:20Yes, because students come into the grisettes room by the roof
0:24:20 > 0:24:24because he's afraid of the owner.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26She's very close to where the thirst is,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29and it's why she belongs to the boheme.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33Because the boheme is the artistic life, you know?
0:24:33 > 0:24:37- With the freedom, with creation. - I think that sounds really romantic.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40And what happens as the grisette grows older?
0:24:40 > 0:24:44Ah! There are no old grisettes.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46Is that because they've married rich men
0:24:46 > 0:24:48- and they're no longer grisettes? - Yes.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Or she has become a kept woman.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Grisettes like Mimi couldn't afford to be too sentimental
0:24:57 > 0:24:58in their relationships.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Quite literally because they were often poorly paid
0:25:02 > 0:25:04and had to get cash wherever they could.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10A grisette would often have two lovers.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15Firstly, her amant de coeur, the one she really likes.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19He might well be a handsome, penniless student.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23And when the grisette was feeling flush, she might give him money.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26But, then, she would also need her amant metallique.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30This was perhaps an older gentleman, a member of the bourgeoisie.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32Maybe married.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34But he would give her gifts.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Some women lived entirely off their rich lovers.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45These kept women became known as lorettes.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Puccini included one in his opera.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57Her name is Musetta, and she goes to a cafe with her older lover.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Also there are the young Bohemians who scrape together
0:26:05 > 0:26:06the money for a Christmas meal.
0:26:08 > 0:26:14Among them is Musetta's former amant de coeur, a penniless painter.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20It's genius how Puccini has created a situation that, on the surface,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24is chaos, but is actually very sophisticatedly written.
0:26:27 > 0:26:33The confrontation of Musetta, she comes in, and sees...her...
0:26:34 > 0:26:36..old boyfriend, Marcello.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38And sings an aria to him.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06The seductive long note of Musetta's aria...
0:27:08 > 0:27:09..unsettles everyone.
0:27:09 > 0:27:15The confidence, the poise, the sexiness of this girl.
0:27:15 > 0:27:16Incredible.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32There's a tremendous swagger about this musicality.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36And there's an almost vulgar sensuality...
0:27:50 > 0:27:54..that makes Marcello feel absolutely terrible.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00But she is irresistible.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03And, of course, he falls in love with her again.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14In La Boheme, Rodolfo and Mimi's love affair
0:28:14 > 0:28:16doesn't have a happy ending.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Mimi falls fatally ill with tuberculosis.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25This terrible condition was a grim reality in the 19th century.
0:28:26 > 0:28:32Soprano Angel Blue has played Mimi dozens of times.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34Why do you think that so many heroines
0:28:34 > 0:28:37in 19th-century operas have to die?
0:28:37 > 0:28:41They're being written about from the perspective of a man.
0:28:41 > 0:28:46And it's unfortunate that these women who really, if you think
0:28:46 > 0:28:50about it, have led really glamorous lives have to end in such tragedy.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53She has to pay the price for her sin.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55They're not supposed to express themselves sexually.
0:28:55 > 0:29:01Still, Mimi's deathbed scene is one of the most moving in any opera.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04So, here we are, sitting on our couches.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09Would you mind giving me a little masterclass in how you do it, then?
0:29:09 > 0:29:11How do I die of consumption as Mimi?
0:29:11 > 0:29:13Sure. I'd be happy to.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18- We're just going to reverse down a little bit.- Assume the position.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23- Is it really possible to sing like this?- Yes, it is.- My goodness.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25So, what I think... Let's see, where could we start?
0:29:25 > 0:29:28We could start from it's just her and Rodolfo, they have a moment.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30And then...
0:29:30 > 0:29:32And then the next part I think is probably the most
0:29:32 > 0:29:34crucial for a death scene.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36And I always pretend like I'm trying to look to him
0:29:36 > 0:29:39- but I can't quite see him. - You can't quite see him, yeah, yeah.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43SHE SINGS
0:29:43 > 0:29:45The music...
0:29:45 > 0:29:47SHE SINGS
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Always, always trying to reach for him. And...
0:29:55 > 0:29:57SHE SINGS
0:29:57 > 0:29:59I sleep.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02And in this moment there is this...
0:30:02 > 0:30:07the music is slowing down and in that moment I think that's just the very last bit.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Mimi takes her last breaths and...
0:30:15 > 0:30:18There is this wonderful stillness onstage.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25Mimi's death does help the other characters grow up a bit.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Even Musetta shows a softer side.
0:31:01 > 0:31:07La boheme premiered in Turin in 1896 and in Paris two years later.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11Normal Parisians loved La boheme.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14The box office receipts were as good as they had ever
0:31:14 > 0:31:17been at the Opera-Comique.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19The opera's themes of lost love,
0:31:19 > 0:31:24and lost youth and poignant regret were irresistible.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35A few decades earlier,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39the German composer Richard Wagner had premiered a very
0:31:39 > 0:31:42different kind of opera here in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48Wagner was composing very serious works drawing on legends
0:31:48 > 0:31:52and mythology rather than people's everyday lives and emotions.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58Like this early opera, Tannhauser about a man's struggle to
0:31:58 > 0:32:02choose between sexuality and spirituality.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06Wagner's attempt to express the deepest levels of human
0:32:06 > 0:32:10existence had not gone down well at the Paris premiere in 1861.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15Also, the ballet wasn't at all to the taste of the jockey club,
0:32:15 > 0:32:16remember them?
0:32:16 > 0:32:19They even staged an elaborate protest involving whistles,
0:32:19 > 0:32:24this annoyed other operagoers and fistfights broke out.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27Wagner was very unhappy about all of this.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30He left France utterly disgusted with the French.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36Wagner returned home to continue working on his specifically
0:32:36 > 0:32:38German form of opera.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44"I am the most German of men," Wagner once said.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49"I am the German spirit." He wasn't known for his modesty.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Wagner was a complicated, controversial character.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55He was a megalomaniac. It was always in debt.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57He hated to be ignored.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01Once at a dinner party in Zurich he felt he wasn't getting enough
0:33:01 > 0:33:04attention so he simply shrieked until everybody looked at him.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11He was also a passionate nationalist.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16After Prussia and other German states won a war with
0:33:16 > 0:33:18France in 1871,
0:33:18 > 0:33:23Germany became a unified nation instead of a loose confederation.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Wagner wanted to write operas that were billed as shared national
0:33:30 > 0:33:34consciousness for the new Germany's ragbag of regions.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39Drawing on ancient Teutonic myths and legends and Norse sagas.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44The result was the Ring cycle,
0:33:44 > 0:33:48a quartet of operas lasting some 16 hours.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52This epic work was finally finished in 1874 after
0:33:52 > 0:33:55a quarter of a century of labour.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57The Ring would, as Wagner put it,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00contain the beginning of the world and its destruction.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08The Ring is a sprawling tale of gods and dragons,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11heroes and heroines, such a lot of them.
0:34:11 > 0:34:12Here are the most important.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18Wotan is the king of the gods.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22He wants to get his hands on a powerful ring that is
0:34:22 > 0:34:24guarded by a dragon.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29To do this, he needs a human hero.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31That's Siegfried.
0:34:31 > 0:34:32He's awfully brave
0:34:32 > 0:34:36but he isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the box.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38He does manage to forge a sword...
0:34:40 > 0:34:44..that is sharp enough to kill the dragon.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47And he also manages to fall in love.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53With Brunnhilde. She is Wotan's daughter.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57She is one of the warrior goddesses called Valkyrie.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59In the cycle's second opera,
0:34:59 > 0:35:03we meet Brunnhilde's Valkyrie sisters. What follows is
0:35:03 > 0:35:07one of the most famous scenes and musical motifs ever written.
0:35:12 > 0:35:18On a mountaintop, eight Valkyries is in full body armour transport
0:35:18 > 0:35:21the fallen heroes to Valhalla.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23We all know this theme...
0:35:23 > 0:35:26HE PLAYS RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Now the piece starts off as an orchestral showpiece,
0:35:38 > 0:35:43enormous vitality and energy and rhythm above all.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53And then becomes a vocal piece.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Valkyries almost cackle with joy. Ha-ha, ha-ha!
0:36:11 > 0:36:13They almost sound like witches, actually.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29The scene becomes more and more intense, more incredible high notes,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32incredible bursts of orchestral splendour.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41In a splendid showpiece, Wagner provides it.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48Wagner's vision was for a Gesamtkunstwerk -
0:36:48 > 0:36:53an ideal work of art, the perfect fusion of words, music and drama.
0:36:53 > 0:36:58And he dreamed of a specially built opera house to perform it in.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00Fortunately, Ludwig II,
0:37:00 > 0:37:05King of Bavaria, who often stayed at this palace, helped pay for it.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08And there's a special gap in the trees here through which they
0:37:08 > 0:37:10could admire their creation.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12The Festival Theatre.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16Now most of the opera houses we have visited so far have been
0:37:16 > 0:37:21sat in the centre of their cities but Wagner did things differently.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25It would be opera house itself that would make Bayreuth important.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34Wagner's stripped back design is the polar
0:37:34 > 0:37:38opposite of the Opera Garnier which opened just the previous year.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43The revolutionary acoustics, including a covered orchestra pit
0:37:43 > 0:37:47are meant to completely immerse the audience in the performance
0:37:47 > 0:37:50so it felt like experiencing reality itself.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56This Festival Theatre was vital to Wagner's vision of a total
0:37:56 > 0:37:58work of art.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03It seems like the theatre itself is a musical instrument,
0:38:03 > 0:38:05it has been that carefully designed.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10Yes, it is also a visual reason.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14The perspective is always leading to the middle of the stage
0:38:14 > 0:38:17and you are always fixed on the stage.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Yes, you are not looking at the other people in the other boxes
0:38:20 > 0:38:23and saying, "Hello, there is my friend."
0:38:23 > 0:38:27- You're sat here in quite a small seat.- That's it.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30You have to concentrate on the stage.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32You have to see, look and hear
0:38:32 > 0:38:37and you are getting in a sort of flow, an aesthetic flow.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41It is a little bit like consuming drugs.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45And, yeah, it is sort of a Wagner trip.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47They are in a Wagner trance.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51Yes, a sort of aesthetic trance which he wanted to create.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03Bayreuth now has a Wagner Festival each summer and the staging
0:39:03 > 0:39:08of the Ring cycle is updated to try to tap into contemporary concerns.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13In 2017, it is partly set in a gas station in the American midwest
0:39:13 > 0:39:15and the New York Stock Exchange.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20But at the first full performance here in August 1876,
0:39:20 > 0:39:21the props proved troublesome.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26The premier did not go at all smoothly.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Part of the problem is that part of the dragon didn't turn up.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34Legend has it that it was sent not to Bayreuth in Germany
0:39:34 > 0:39:36but to Beirut in Lebanon .
0:39:36 > 0:39:39The parts that did arrive made the dragon
0:39:39 > 0:39:43look like a cross between a porcupine and a lizard.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Wagner was so disappointed
0:39:45 > 0:39:50and upset that he refused to come out of the end for his curtain call.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54Instead, he stayed skulking in his room hurling abuse at all
0:39:54 > 0:39:55the performers.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01But there was good news, too.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06Many considered this to be the musical event of the century.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09And Kaiser Wilhelm was there along with dignitaries, musicians
0:40:09 > 0:40:12and artists from around the world.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17Since then, the Bayreuth festival has become part of the international
0:40:17 > 0:40:19opera calendar.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21For many, it is like a pilgrimage and they will eat
0:40:21 > 0:40:25here at a restaurant that still serves Wagner's favourite sausages.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30But Wagner's legacy is a controversial one.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34His creation of a shared national consciousness appealed to Hitler
0:40:34 > 0:40:35and the Nazis.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Siegfried's Funeral March was a particular favourite of theirs.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Siegfried's Funeral March is an orchestral interlude that
0:40:48 > 0:40:51celebrates the life of a fallen hero.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56It is many themes intertwined,
0:40:56 > 0:41:03one with the other celebrate a life lived, a life lost.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06Introduced by a desolate...
0:41:07 > 0:41:09And gloomy chromatic figure.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32The most important theme that we hear is the theme of the sword,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36this ascending theme, the theme of achievement.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55In a blaze of C major.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09It also expresses an enormous and genuine sadness.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23That is overwhelming and Wagner knew that this would be the effect.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27It is unique.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35You can kind of see why Hitler was a fan.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38But I prefer a different interpretation of the Ring.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42That it ends with a passionate appeal for love and compassion.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46This idea centres on Brunnhilde, an incredibly challenging vocal
0:42:46 > 0:42:51role that soprano Catherine Foster has performed numerous times.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56How would you contrast Brunnhilde to the male characters in general?
0:42:56 > 0:43:00Everything that Brunnhilde does is motivated from love.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05And motivated out of the wish to be with somebody whereas Wotan
0:43:05 > 0:43:10and most of the other characters it is all motivated out of power
0:43:10 > 0:43:11and wanting money.
0:43:11 > 0:43:16She actually turns around and says, "enough is enough."
0:43:16 > 0:43:18It is time for a change.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22It is a complicated story but by sacrificing herself on
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Siegfried's funeral pyre, Brunnhilde ends the selfish rule of the gods.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31Humans and humanity have the ability for wonders,
0:43:31 > 0:43:32for absolute beauty
0:43:32 > 0:43:39but they also have the terrible side for horrendous acts
0:43:39 > 0:43:42and I think that is what she was cleansing, start again,
0:43:42 > 0:43:45get your values right
0:43:45 > 0:43:50and start living life for yourself with
0:43:50 > 0:43:54better values than greed and want and money.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58- So, she really has destroyed the patriarchy?- Yes.
0:43:58 > 0:43:59Can you tell me,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02what is different about Brunnhilde's death compared
0:44:02 > 0:44:06with your general run of a 19th-century opera heroine
0:44:06 > 0:44:10who is probably going to get killed by someone, in some way?
0:44:10 > 0:44:15I feel here with Brunnhilde that she doesn't die without hope.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17She doesn't die without giving hope.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21Her death will mean something and will give something to somebody else.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53You might have thought Wagner had pushed musical
0:44:53 > 0:44:55convention about as far as it could go.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59But a new kind of modernism began pushing opera even
0:44:59 > 0:45:02further into uncharted terrain.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05The most shocking and salacious of them all
0:45:05 > 0:45:08was written by another German, Richard Strauss.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14Strauss often found his creative inspiration while he was travelling.
0:45:14 > 0:45:15HORN BLAST
0:45:16 > 0:45:21He was also a skilful player of the German card game, scat -
0:45:21 > 0:45:22a bit like poker -
0:45:22 > 0:45:26and he was thinking strategically about ways to make his musical mark.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32He wanted to create a new type of opera,
0:45:32 > 0:45:35modern in form, modern in content.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38Something that was suitable for this modern age,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41when the new discipline of psychoanalysis was
0:45:41 > 0:45:45illuminating the darkest human desires.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48All he needed was the right subject.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50And in 1903, he found it.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54He went to see a play called Salome by...
0:45:54 > 0:45:56..Oscar Wilde.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59This play had caused an enormous scandal, all over Europe,
0:45:59 > 0:46:04because of its really shocking representation of female lust.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08After the play, a friend of Strauss' said to him,
0:46:08 > 0:46:13"My dear Strauss, surely you could make an opera out of that?"
0:46:13 > 0:46:17And Strauss replied, "I'm already composing it."
0:46:26 > 0:46:30Strauss arranged to show his Salome here in Dresden -
0:46:30 > 0:46:33a progressive and freethinking kind of a place.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36The opera houses in Vienna and Berlin
0:46:36 > 0:46:38refused to consider such a scandalous work.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45Strauss based his libretto on a German translation of Wilde's play,
0:46:45 > 0:46:50illustrated here with Aubrey Beardsley's iconic images.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53It's a Bible story.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57Salome is the stepdaughter of King Herod.
0:46:57 > 0:47:03Strauss sees Salome as a board, beautiful teenager.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05And all the men at King Herod's court,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08including King Herod himself, are totally in lust with her.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10That's probably why, in this picture,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13he's looking a bit shifty and guilty.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17Now, in his prison, Herod is holding captive...
0:47:17 > 0:47:19..John the Baptist.
0:47:19 > 0:47:24Salome develops a huge, weird crush on John the Baptist.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26But he rejects her.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29She's furious about this and plots to have him killed.
0:47:29 > 0:47:31How's Salome going to get that done?
0:47:31 > 0:47:37Well, if she performs an erotic dance for her stepfather,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40he will give her her heart's desire.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53# Oompah, oompah, oompah, oompah, oompah, oompah
0:47:53 > 0:47:55# Darry-ya, darry-ya!
0:47:55 > 0:47:57# Darry-ya, darry-ya! #
0:47:57 > 0:48:01It kind of gets our blood boiling and prepares us,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04then winds us down, for the start of a sultry dance.
0:48:18 > 0:48:24This slow waltz, which is building and building and building
0:48:24 > 0:48:27and becomes a faster waltz.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30And then he pulls back again.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33It's like a seduction, in a way, isn't it?
0:48:42 > 0:48:45It's something that's creepy,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49in that it creates the rhythm of lovemaking.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Once the dance is finished, Herod is in ecstasy.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12He offers her anything in his kingdom. He offers her his kingdom!
0:49:12 > 0:49:16But Salome says, "I want one thing," and she says it sweetly.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34And now she gets louder and louder and more demanding.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37And the tension is unbelievable.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01And it is sickening, somehow.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13And that was the effect that Strauss was looking for,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16something that would definitely shock.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26The rehearsals at Dresden's Semperoper didn't go smoothly.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30His Salome, the soprano Frau Wittich,
0:50:30 > 0:50:32refused to perform the dance.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34"I'm a decent woman!", she said.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Strauss - there he is - had to bring in a body double for that scene.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42Strauss was canny enough to know
0:50:42 > 0:50:44that controversy boosted ticket sales.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46And including what was basically
0:50:46 > 0:50:48a ten-minute strip tease couldn't hurt.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51But he may have been up to even more than that.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57Strauss' musical portrayal of Salome reflected how
0:50:57 > 0:50:59ideas about women were changing.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04Over in Vienna, Sigmund Freud was studying the drives that
0:51:04 > 0:51:06lurk in the unconscious mind.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10The teenage Salome's sexual appetites,
0:51:10 > 0:51:12not to mention her lecherous stepfather,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15read like one of Freud's case studies.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18At the same time, the movement for women's rights
0:51:18 > 0:51:20and suffrage was gaining ground.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25And Dresden artists were pioneering expressionism.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30Like in this cheerful woodcut by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35What is he trying to express, then?
0:51:35 > 0:51:37To me, it looks like anger,
0:51:37 > 0:51:40it's horrible, it's grim, it's miserable -
0:51:40 > 0:51:43it's not a very attractive image at all, is it?
0:51:43 > 0:51:45No, but I think he's trying to show her as she is.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48There's no sense of the 19th-century
0:51:48 > 0:51:52tradition of idealising the woman's form.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54It's very naturalistic.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57It's, "This is my girlfriend, you can see her."
0:51:57 > 0:52:00I've notice he's pushing her forwards, with his hands, isn't he?
0:52:00 > 0:52:03- He's saying, "Here she is."- "Here she is."- "Take her or leave her."
0:52:03 > 0:52:04KATE LAUGHS
0:52:04 > 0:52:07And I also think on the way her nipples are painted red
0:52:07 > 0:52:10and her lips are red, it's quite a sexual image.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14What was the relationship, Kate, between these expressionists
0:52:14 > 0:52:16and Salome and Strauss?
0:52:16 > 0:52:19Salome is such a complex character,
0:52:19 > 0:52:24she's on the one hand kind of innocent, and on the other,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27she's this teenager becoming in control of her own destiny.
0:52:27 > 0:52:33So she sort of embodied this slight fear of women at this time
0:52:33 > 0:52:35and the women's rights movement.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37Women were just joining universities,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40becoming more than just mothers and wives.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43And really taking a new role in the 20th century.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45Dresden was at the heart of this artistic movement,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48but also central to the women's rights movement.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Well, now that you've said that, you can
0:52:51 > 0:52:56see her as somebody who it's a bit fearsome, intimidating.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59Perhaps there's something impressive about her after all.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03Yes, like Salome, there's a sense that she's a
0:53:03 > 0:53:07complex character, but she's growing to become a powerful woman.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14How Strauss' Salome expresses that power is still shocking.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18The severed head of John the Baptist is brought to Salome, as she asked.
0:53:26 > 0:53:27She is ecstatic.
0:53:28 > 0:53:33And this prepares us for a final scene,
0:53:33 > 0:53:37which is as horrible as it is fascinating.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42She sings the words, "You wouldn't give your lips to me..."
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Music, where the orchestra is literally screaming.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15It's almost not music, it's pushing music to the limits.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21And she sings erotically to that head.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23She kisses its mouth.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35And yet, so much of this scene is beautiful to listen to.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37That's what's... I think that's the most shocking thing.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46And I think this is the genius of Strauss,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49the great manipulator of our emotions.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03She will die a violent death.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09But she is happy she has made love to the man
0:55:09 > 0:55:11she imagined she was in love with.
0:55:39 > 0:55:44The censors in Vienna banned Salome until 1918,
0:55:44 > 0:55:49saying its perverted sensuality was morally repugnant.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52It was a rather different story at Dresden's Semperoper
0:55:52 > 0:55:55on the 9th of December 1905.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Shocking and disgusting though Salome was,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04the audience in Dresden loved it.
0:56:04 > 0:56:09On the first night, there were 38 curtain calls.
0:56:09 > 0:56:10The Kaiser said,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14"I'm sorry that Strauss has written this Salome, because I like him,
0:56:14 > 0:56:18"and that kind of thing will do him a lot of damage."
0:56:18 > 0:56:22But Strauss said, "Huh! That damage is what built me my villa."
0:56:24 > 0:56:28By 1911, Salome had been performed successfully in just
0:56:28 > 0:56:30about every European capital.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Though here in London, in 1910, there was no severed head,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39only a silver platter covered by a napkin.
0:56:40 > 0:56:45Strauss' opera helps to fuel the Salo-mania craze
0:56:45 > 0:56:49for Wilde's play across Europe and the USA.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54This is a silent version from the 1920s.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Although there probably would have been a piano or something
0:56:57 > 0:57:00playing along to give you a live musical accompaniment.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03It might look a little bit tame by today's standards,
0:57:03 > 0:57:06but this was shocking and raunchy.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08Just as shocking to some,
0:57:08 > 0:57:13by that time many women across Western Europe had the vote.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Operas kept being composed and produced,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20but modernist music was getting more and more challenging.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22And cinema was taking over.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31On our European tour,
0:57:31 > 0:57:35we've seen how great operas captured the spirit of their times.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37But are they still relevant today?
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Tony, what would you say that Carmen or La Boheme
0:57:40 > 0:57:45or the Ring Cycle or Salome still have to offer us today?
0:57:45 > 0:57:48All these operas are stories about people.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52Theatre and opera theatre should function as a mirror.
0:57:53 > 0:57:58I think we look at these people and we put ourselves in their place.
0:57:58 > 0:58:05Even though these people suffer, can we learn from somebody's suffering?
0:58:05 > 0:58:06Can we learn from their passion,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09can we learn from the struggles between characters?
0:58:09 > 0:58:14It's a school, it's a mirror, it's empathy.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16It's all of the above.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18It's a treasure.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21Coming to opera makes you a better human being?
0:58:21 > 0:58:23When you put it like that, it sounds great!