A “prophecy motif” from this opera that consists of two descending fourths and a tritone on notes (read slowly) “C, long G; up to F, long C; up to A, long D-sharp” is associated with a character who first appears as an offstage voice. Répetiteurs often audition with a difficult section of this opera in which a group of five Jews quarrel over theology. Chapter 1 of Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise discusses how two “harmonic spheres” are created by the rising clarinet scale that opens this opera. An A dominant-seventh and F-sharp major polychord at the end of this opera has been called “the most sickening chord in opera.” An Oscar Wilde play forms the libretto of (10[1])this (10[1])opera, which ends as Herod orders the title character’s death. For 10 points, the “Dance of the Seven Veils” is included in what Richard Strauss opera about a princess who demands the head of John the Baptist? ■END■