Click here to watch Catherine Malfitano perform the Dance of the Seven Veils

CIt merits just a few lines in the Bible, and they're there to explain the death of John the Baptist, not the life of a spoilt princess from Judaea. But it's the story of Salome, who dances the night away for the pleasure of her stepfather, Herod, and then demands the goriest of prices in return, that has captured the imagination of artists throughout history.

Yet no version of the story shocked quite as much as Strauss's operatic adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play. Memorably, he asked for a “16-year-old with the voice of Isolde”: in other words, a soprano with lungs of steel who could also act - and dance - like a teenage harlot. But should she really shed all her seven veils in pursuit of artistic truth? We asked seven distinguished Salomes to reveal all about the demands of singing opera's most notorious heroine.

ANJA SILJA

Dubbed the “Shirley Temple of opera”, she made her stage debut aged 15 and first sang Salome in a production directed by Wieland Wagner, then her lover, in 1960. She now plays the role of Herodias, Salome's mother.

I was 21 years old when I first sang Salome, and I think the youngest Salome one can imagine, so I was the closest to the mentality of that personality. As an adult it is very difficult to portray someone who is so childish, and is not a sex bomb. She wants the head, she gets the head, and that's the end of her.

I was a trained ballet dancer but it's very different to do that dance in public, so I was shy in the beginning. It was something we did as myself, the pianist and Wieland Wagner - we were the only people who rehearsed it. The dance is normally a rather silly thing so he made it like a temple dance.

All the Wieland Wagner productions caused scandals and this one made a lot of noise wherever we went. It was very stylised, very different, and the first time that one had [worn] so little on stage! But I was not naked: he and I didn't believe in total nudity. It doesn't work in opera and theatre, it only works in movies.

That's the problem with these seductive roles, like Carmen and Lulu. You have to be it or it doesn't work. They are all written for unconscious sexuality, and nowadays everyone is so conscious.

HELEN FIELD

The Welsh soprano sang Salome throughout the 1990s. She will reprise the role next season at Welsh National Opera.

The first time I sang the part was in the Luc Bondy production. It had a well choreographed dance, which is essential. I remember one production in Toronto where we had a screen: I slipped behind it and a professional dancer did the dance - then I slipped out again. Then there were various productions where it was half a dance, but that's a cop-out.

Some people say that Salome's not been sexy if she hasn't acted like Lolita, but that's missing the point. I just think she has something, she knows she's going to get her own way, and the dance is the time she does it. When I took off all my clothes [at the Los Angeles Opera] I thought no one would find out about it, and then my mother read about it in The Sun and was shocked! But if you're convinced it's the right sort of thing in that production then you do it.

Memorable performances? On one occasion I had the head of one particular Jochanaan . He must have had a round head because it just wouldn't stay still and eventually rolled into the pit.

GRACE BUMBRY

She began her career as a mezzo- soprano. Moving to the soprano repertoire, she first sang Salome in Covent Garden in 1970.

My profession is to sing and to do a dance of about 12 minutes, that's very demanding - first to remember all the steps and then also to interpret it tastefully. It was erotic, yes - you do what you can do. When she dances, of course it is revealing but it is missing the point whether she takes her clothes off or keeps them on. What is important is how she plays the rest of the opera.

I was 30 when I sang the role but I didn't give any thought to my age- otherwise you're going to end up locking yourself out of a lot of roles. I think the thing that surprised the audience when I sang Salome was that it was the turning point in my career. The success of the performance told me that I was correct, and that my voice was in its natural place.

KARITA MATTILA

The Finnish soprano sang Salome in Paris in 2003 before starring in Jürgen Flimm's production at the Metropolitan in New York, which she recalls here.

I was so fit when I did that Salome: the amount of workouts and massages and physiotherapy and things that I did was just amazing, but I was having a ball.

I was worried, of course. You know the dance will be there, which may well end up with you being a few seconds naked, which happened, but when we started rehearsing with a choreographer, what he showed me was so convincing. And we started working on it for four weeks, every day, the dancing process with two dancers. I remember once worrying to my massage therapist, a lovely Russian guy. I said to him, “You know I'm so concerned being next to these handsome beautiful-bodied male dancers.” And he said, “They've seen it all, don't you worry - they've seen naked bodies all their lives.” I thought this was such a good remark I stopped worrying!

Of course my brain said ‘yes' it will cause a fuss, but for me the crucial issue was: can I believe in it? If had been treated like an effect, just for shock, then it wouldn't have worked.

CATHERINE MALFITANO

The American soprano played Salome at Covent Garden (to Anja Silja's Herodias) in 1995 and 1997.

I always took the view that Salome was not extraordinary, but what was extraordinary was her meeting such a man in this very grim atmosphere. Her heart is made to feel love, and so for me maybe more shocking than the act she commits at the end of the opera is that she's a loveless child. I really did want the shock value to be had, but not for its own lurid display.

I did one production, in Berlin, where I took the clothes off, and one where I didn't [Luc Bondy's], so I covered all the bases! But just because Salome is dancing the dance of the seven veils, I don't think we have to conclude that she's naked under those veils.

My four-year-old daughter was my greatest inspiration at the time. At that age girls love to run around naked. I watched her freedom and sense of not being aware of her own body, just the total joy of nakedness. And it was a very liberating moment when I finally took my undergarments off in the first rehearsal. Most people looking at that would never think my inspiration was so innocent.

GWYNETH JONES

She won worldwide acclaim for her Wagner and Strauss performances and is currently singing Herodias at Malmo Opera, Sweden.

My first Salome was in 1970, in Hamburg, in a new production by August Everding conducted by Karl Bohm. I started the dance in a very traditional way, with belly-dancer movements, but as it became more and more like calling to Jochanaan she changed from this young virginal woman and got all kinds of sexual awakenings.

At first I would wear a beautifully embroidered bikini and later I had a see-through body stocking. It is more erotic not to take everything off, particularly with a woman's figure when she starts running around the stage, then it's better if there's something to keep the body firm. One always knows that to have a veil over you is much more sexy than baring everything.

JULIA MIGENES

First sang Salome in Maurice Bejart's 1983 Geneva production.

Bejart wanted somebody who could really move on stage. But you can't be part Puerto-Rican, part-Greek and part-Irish and not be able to sing those sorts of roles with the energy that's necessary.

All his [Bejart's] movements were very seductive: but in a sensual, childlike way. I'm 5ft 2in, I was 110 lb [50kg], and I was just able to do all that. I'm not sexy, but I'm sensual. One is more obvious, with the other you don't really know what is happening; one is like you're trying, the other one is not. I don't know if nudity is important or not. When men direct, then any chance to get the girl to take her clothes off will do. Montserrat Caballe had seven muumuus on instead of veils and at a certain time in the music one would come off and by the time it got to the seventh you could almost see through and you'd be going 'Please God, don't take off the seventh veil!' I don't know - you can do a lapdance fully clothed, can't you? But the new Salome [at Covent Garden] will probably be naked, I can't imagine it'd be very interesting if she wasn't. Now everyone's naked at the drop of a hat.

Salome, Royal Opera House, London WC2 (info.royaloperahouse.org 020-7304 4000) from Thursday

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