Say what you will about composer Richard Strauss – he knew how to incite an audience. In his opera Salome, the temptress of the same name performs the erotic dance of the seven veils for King Herod. This in return for anything she named, and she demanded the head of John the Baptist. After strenuous objections by Herod, she gets her way. When she receives his head and begins affectionately stroking its hair, she’s rushed by Herod’s indignant soldiers and crushed to death by their shields. This was hot stuff for 1911. When the production came to St Louis, it caused a sensation.