The premiere of the one-act opera by Richard Strauss Salome took place at the Royal Opera Theatre of Dresden on the 9th of December 1905. It was performed under the leadership of conductor Ernst von Schuch by the orchestra, that was enlarged to one hundred and twenty musicians, and excellent cast, amongst which were famous Wagnerian singers Marie Wittich (Salome), Karel Burian (Herodes) and Karl Perron (Jochanaan). The author considered it to be an outstanding performance.

A scandalous reputation of the play by Oscar Wilde (1891), which became the foundation of the libretto, written by the composer himself, fuelled interest in the new opera even further. By 1906, Salome had appeared on the stages of sixteen European opera theatres, including Leipzig, Cologne, Milan, Turin… A year later – in New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. The Austrian premiere, held in 1906 in Graz under the direction of the author, gathered the best representatives of the music world: in the auditorium amongst other important names were Gustav Mahler, Giacomo Puccini, Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg.