The story of Salome and John the Baptist may be the most twisted tale in the Western canon.  Oscar Wilde’s take on the story, with music by Richard Strauss added, didn’t make it any less twisted.  Nor did Atom Egoyan’s production of the opera for the COC and its several remounts.  How, one might ask, could one ramp the twistedness up a notch?  The answer, and a very successful one, is to have Egoyan make a film based around his production.  And so, Seven Veils, which had its avant-premier, ahead of TIFF, at the Four Seasons Centre last night.

Ambur Braid as Salome (top left), Michael Kupfer-Radecky as Jochanaan (below), and Frédéric Antoun as Narraboth (top right) in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Salome, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper

Continue reading →