This fall, the Metropolitan Opera revived director Jürgen Flimm and designer Santo Loquasto's updated, 2004 production of Richard Strauss' "Salome," after Oscar Wilde's play, for the first time since it was new and the raison d'être now, as then, was Karita Mattila's stunning portrayal of the eponymous, willful and bloodthirsty Judean princess. The last of this season's seven performances, on October 16, is considered here.

Lavishing lush and luminous soprano sound on her music, Mattila conquered challenge after challenge in the formidable part, which has felled many a lesser singer, and made a particular tour-de-force of the lengthy final scene. Mattila's Salome invariably clutched a drink with one hand and a bottle with the other-as did her mother, Herodias-and draped her legs over Joseph Kaiser's smitten Narraboth as she wheedled from him a glimpse of the captive Jochanaan, played by newcomer and Mattila's fellow Finn, Juha Uusitalo. This princess kicked Narraboth aside, as he lay bleeding to death before her, and tugged the ropes, binding Jochanaan, like a leash, as she revealed her identity to him. Almost needless to say, Mattila looked terrific, able to pull off a brief moment of complete nudity at the climax of her Dance of the Seven Veils. It was no surprise that the audience at this sold-out performance rewarded her with a well-deserved standing ovation at her solo curtain call.

At Herod's decadent court in the desert, watched over by guards with machine guns and angels of death in black burqas with white wings, chic guests in fancy garb gawked at Jochanaan, as he preached and fumed, and blithely ignored Narraboth's corpse in their path, while the Jewish guests, in Chasidic black, were as raucously argumentative, to the point of offensive caricature, as Strauss and Wilde decreed. The spoiled hosts, Herod and Herodias, strongly limned and sung by Kim Begley and Ildikó Komlósi, were as repellent as they should be.

Uusitalo sang Jochanaan's prophecies and curses in a soft-grained dramatic bass-baritone. He was pulled up, blindfolded at first, from the cistern on a lift, which later brought up his severed head.

Conductor Patrick Summers elicited the full array of orchestral color called for from his players.

Between January 30 and February 21, 2009, Mattila takes on the role of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" for the first time here.

For tickets visit Eugene Onegin Tickets at Metropolitan Opera House, or from $15 to 375, go to www.metopera.org, call 212/362-6000, or visit the Metropolitan Opera box office at Lincoln Center.