Semperoper

thereby all the fires of the town are extinguished the piece is rather too long for a short opera and too short for a full-length one but the text is rich in word-play punning satire double meanings and topical allusions interlarded with biting reflection on the manner in which munich had once turned against wagner and on the trouble the benighted burghers would have in similarly ridding themselves of the troublesome There is not a little of the real Strauss in the music, though at that, less than one might expect from the composer of Till Ovenspiegel and Ein Heldenleben, which already lay some distance in the past.

Feuersnot was first staged at the Dresden Opera on November 21, 1901, under the leadership of Ernst von Zürch, and the consequence was that for years to come, Strauss's operatic premieres took place in that gracious city.

we now come into view of a milestone of modern music drama in nineteen o two strauss attended a performance of oscar wilde's play salome at max reinhold's kleines theater in berlin gertrude eisold had the title role the swiss musicologist willie schuh relates that the composer after the performance was accosted by his friend heinrich greenfeld who remarked strauss this would be an operatic subject for you i am already composing it was the reply and the composer went on to tell the viennese writer anton linder had already sent me the play and offered to make an opera text of it for me upon my agreement he sent me some cleverly versified opening scenes which did not however inspire me with an urge to composition till one day the question shaped itself in my mind why do i not compose at once without further preliminaries be sure it's the princess and from then on it was not difficult to cleanse the piece of literature so that it has become a thoroughly fine libretto necessity gave me a really exotic scheme of harmony which showed itself especially in odd heterogeneous cadences having the effect of changeable silk it was the desire for the sharpest kind of individual characterization that led me to bitonality one can look upon this as a solitary experience as applied in a special case but not recommended for imitation difficulties began with von schuch's first piano rehearsals a number of singers sought to give back their parts till karl bryan shamed them by answering when asked how he was progressing with the role of herod i already know it by heart a little later the salome frau wittlich threatened to go on strike because of the taxing part and the massive orchestra soon too she began to rail against perversity and impiety of the opera refuse to do this or that because i am a decent woman and drove the stage manager almost frantic strauss remarked that her figure was not really suited to the sixteen-year-old princess with the isolde voice and complained that in subsequent performances her dance and her actions with joachimann's head overstepped all bounds of propriety and taste In Berlin, according to Strauss, the Kaiser would permit the performance of the work only after Intendant von Hülsen had the idea of indicating at the close by a sudden shining of the morning star the coming of the three holy kings.

Nevertheless, Wilhelm II remarked to Hülsen, I am sorry that Strauss composed this Salome.

End of Part 2 There is scarcely any need to recount in any detail the early difficulties of Salome in America, when the scandalized cries that arose after the work received a single representation at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, only to be shelved as detrimental to the best interests of the institution after a solitary representation still ranks among the notorious and less creditable legends of the american stage strauss soon after this taste of the operations of american puritanism accused americans of hypocrisy the most loathsome of all vices he was handsomely avenged however when on january twenty eighth nineteen o nine oscar hammerstein revived the work with mary garden salome at his manhattan opera house and started it on a triumphant american career which confounded all the ludicrous prognostications and horrified shouts with which it has been greeted only a short time earlier The work which followed Salome was Electra, the text of which was the creation of Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

Here began a collaboration between poet and musician, which was to last with fruitful results until the latter's death, and to mark some of the high points of Strauss's achievements.

The story of their joint labors is detailed in a priceless series of letters brought out in 1925 under the editorial supervision of the composer's son, dr fraun strauss these letters afford glimpses into the workshop of librettist and composer which rank with some of the most illuminating exchanges of the sort the history of music supplies from them we learn that before settling on the tragedy of the house of agamemnon the collaborator seriously pondered as operatic material calderon's daughter of the air and also then early in nineteen o eight they seem to have agreed on electra hoffmansthal's version of the greek legend based on sophocles had been acted in berlin again with gertrude eisalt in the title role and no sooner had strauss witnessed the production than he concluded that the tragedy in this form was virtually made to order for his music on july sixth nineteen o eight the composer wrote to hofmannsthal elektra progresses and is going well i hope to hurry up the premiere for the end of january at the latest strauss was as good as his word the first performance of elektra took place january twenty five nineteen o nine at the dresden opera ernst von schuch conducting with annie kruhl in the name part ernestine schumann-henck as clytemnestra and karl perron as orestes if strauss would have preferred to write a comic opera after salome the pull of the genre of horror opera was still strong upon him and he was not yet ready to loose himself from its grip Electra was, if one chooses, gorier than Salome, and perhaps more genuinely psychopathic, but less susceptible to provocations of outraged morality.

Its instrumental requirements are rather larger than those of Strauss's previous opera, and the whole more nightmarish in its sensational atmosphere.

As you know, Michael, being a student at SAB, you're very fortunate because many directors will come and watch Clap and hire people either for full-time positions or apprenticeships.

And that was exactly the case with Semper Opera.

Aaron came to New York looking for apprentices.

And actually, funny story here.

It was one of those situations.

It was just, it was very chaotic that first year.

But eventually, with huge thanks to the Semper Opera, we were all foreigners in this company.

So we were all adapting in some way.