Herodias is arguably one of the nastiest characters in all of opera. How do you approach the role?
You could say she’s a monster, egotistical, ruthless, so yes, there’s not much to like there and I don’t try to justify anything or absolve her. I’m more interested in her motives. Her marriage is illegitimate, her position at court is uncertain, and to cap it all her daughter becomes her rival. Hence her hardness.

Herodias and her daughter Salome have a very cold and distanced relationship. Is that close to the bone for you as a mother?
Funnily enough not in this work. I realised early on that there’s just not much there. Herodias and Salome are irredeemably estranged and it’s visible in every encounter they have. There’s hardly any motherly love and their relationship is so frigid that it’s challenging on an analytical rather than emotional level. That’s not normally how it is: if I’m singing Kostelnička in Janáček’s JENŮFA, I’m in tears for ages afterwards.

Why does the fate of Kostelnička affect you more?
She commits this heinous crime, the murder of a child, but I still feel more pity than horror. Her motives are plain from her backstory as set out in the libretto: she’s a driven woman. With Herodias it’s different. It’s hard to sympathise with her, not just because we’re not given much in terms of biography but also because we get the feeling she’s quite cool with her own meanness.

Herodias is caught between her claim to power and her loss of influence. How do you convey these conflicted states on stage?
It happens all by itself thanks to the music. My role kicks off with the words »You mustn’t look at her!«, aimed at her husband Herod, who’s gazing lustfully at their daughter. The words are direct and dark and accusatory – and yet somewhat restrained. From then on things get more and more intense, ending in my outburst: »My daughter was right to demand the head of Jochanaan.« Her own daughter wants to kiss the lips of the beheaded Jochanaan and she stands there shrieking in an extreme of passion. It’s so over-the-top that each time I do it, it’s like, wow, Strauss got this woman down to a ‘T’, from her initial, composed reproach to the final scene when she’s lost it. He’s got an amazing feel for the verbal-tonal relationship. Herodias’s style of singing is her all over: manipulative, wounding, extreme.

Strauss’s music is known to be challenging. What was the hardest aspect for you, musically?
The rhythm! Strauss is always shifting the metre – triples, quadruples, all jumbled up. You have to be very precise or it goes pear-shaped. Same goes for the words, you’ve got to hit all the beats. There are no long arias where I’ve got some free rein. Herodias inserts her two cents’ worth and they’ve got to hit the mark. I weigh every word for its significance at that point in the proceedings.

You used to sing Salome’s role yourself. How does that affect your approach to Herodias?
I know Salome inside out, but that’s no real help with Herodias. She has a totally different perspective. Salome is a driven woman, but Herodias uses her daughter to achieve her own ends. She knows exactly what she wants and she’s happy to sacrifice people in the process. Amazing how cool and calculating she is – and musically and dramatically it calls for a different approach.

Is it fun playing a baddie?
You can bet it is! With Herodias I don’t spend much time agonising over whether I get her or like her. She’s so loud and egocentric that I just get a lot of enjoyment from the role. And Strauss’s music gives me everything I need to portray her believably. The character’s so rich – I love it!