3. Richard Strauss, The Berlin PhilharmonicSalome

It’s an opera by Richard Strauss, and it really struck me when I first discovered it. Weirdly, it takes me back to a similar period as when I first encountered Arthur Russell, around 2021, when I had moved to New York. I was deep into studying composition, teaching myself orchestration, spending hours at the New York Public Library, watching operas, reading, and listening.

Salome hit me with its intensity, its music, its conciseness, the one-act structure, and the story itself. The tale of Salome and John the Baptist’s beheading, all of it resonated with me then and still does today. I actually went to a Metropolitan Opera production last month, and it had the same effect. It’s a record, and a performance, that transports me every time.