ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the usefulness of the concept of space to capture the limited openness of Salome's dance, but also to better comprehend the phenomenon of opera production generally. Understanding productions as rooms might refer to the multidimensionality constituted by the different forms of expressions. The chapter concerns all three as they operate in Salome and in operatic production. The first represents the physical room, and how the construction of the auditorium inflects the listener's experience directly. The second level refers to the representations of rooms on stage, as clearly demonstrated in productions by McVicar and Konwitschny. These two productions also exemplify how such spaces include not only representations of physical rooms, but also of psychological or mental spaces. Neither the regrettable fact that new operas are almost no longer produced, nor the fixed frames of opera texts have stopped an extreme and radical visual and contextual recreation within opera production.
