ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST | World Premiere Staging

Music by Alessandro Stradella
New English text by Bari Biern
Co-production with Catapult Opera

October 2025
340 Maple Dr. Washington, DC| Baltimore Theater Project

From the pen of one of the most audacious, salacious, and extraordinary composers ever to live (whose life was so fantastical that multiple operas were composed about it), comes this 17th century version of the biblical Salome story. Every bit as compelling, gruesome, and at once horrifying and intoxicating as the Oscar Wilde play written over two centuries later, this oratorio has become infamous for its incredible score, unlike any other music, and its dramatic power. It marked even the concert debut of a young Maria Callas in 1947 singing the role of the stepdaughter Salome who demands of Herod the head of John the Baptist, and will do anything to get it. Written as a concert work, this production marks the first time Stradella’s masterpiece is brought to life on the stage.