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Strauss's operatic adaptation of the play also features the Dance of the Seven Veils. The dance remains unnamed except in the acting notes, but Salome's sexual fascination with John seems to motivate the request—though Herod is portrayed as pleased. The music for the dance comes from near the climax of the opera.
The last part to be written was the Dance of the Seven Veils, often decried as the weakest feature of the opera, but more justly defined as a brilliantly effective, self-contained tone poem, its music wheedling, kittenish, teasing, and ultimately demoniacal, as Strauss lashes the waltz rhythm into a frenzy.
In this opera, Salome performs the dance for King Herod in exchange for John the Baptist’s head. Today, the phrase is still used to describe any kind of seductive or mysterious performance where layers are gradually removed.
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After Salome inquires into his promise, and he swears to honor it, she prepares for the "Dance of the Seven Veils". This dance, very oriental in orchestration, has her slowly removing her seven veils, until she lies naked at his feet. Salome then demands the head of the prophet on a silver platter. Her mother cackles in pleasure.
It is in her dance that the veils of concealment—of chastity, of marriage, of mourning, of sex, of the harem—are discarded. Salome has broken through the male-imposed laws that attempt to hide the female object of desire. She is autonomous, and her dance is a profound tear in these veils of concealment.
After Salome inquires into his promise, and he swears to honor it, she prepares for the "Dance of the Seven Veils". This dance, very oriental in orchestration, has her slowly removing her seven veils, until she lies naked at his feet. Salome then demands the head of the prophet on a silver platter. Her mother cackles in pleasure.
As she caresses it, contemplates it, and finally kisses it, various themes from earlier in the opera are recalled, including music from the “Dance of the Seven Veils.”. Overwhelmed with disgust and revulsion, Herod orders his guards to kill her, and they crush her beneath their shields. — John Mangum.
