Visions of Salome: The Femme Fatale in American Popular Songs before 1920

AbstractThis article documents representations of Salome, an archetypal exotic femme fatale, in American popular songs of the early twentieth century. The production of Salome songs began shortly after the sensational 1907 U.S. premiere of Richard Strauss's Salome at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Vaudeville performers, beginning with the Met's own prima ballerina, capitalized on the ensuing fad for Salome dances, which the New York Times called “Salomania.” Relevant songs and dances figured in musical comedies and revues until some time after the return of Strauss's opera to the New York stage, in the 1909 Manhattan Opera Company production with Mary Garden in the title role. Through the next decade, musical, lyrical, and illustrative tropes that originated in the Salome songs became disassociated from the figure of Salome, gradually merging into “oriental fox-trots” and exotic romance songs. The topical humor of the Salome songs suggests that American audiences were skeptical of the allure of orientalist fantasy, then at its height in Europe, and that an unwillingness to grant artistic legitimacy to Salome's religious-themed eroticism is an important marker of the American reception of works such as Strauss's.