List of operas by Richard Strauss

Summary

The German composer Richard Strauss (1864–1949) was prolific and long-lived, writing 16 operas from 1892 up until his death in 1949. Strauss "emerged soon after the deaths of Wagner and Brahms as the most important living German composer",[1] and was crucial in inaugurating the musical style of Modernism. His operas were dominant representatives of the genre in his time, particularly his earlier ones: Salome (1905), Elektra (1909), Der Rosenkavalier (1911) and Ariadne auf Naxos (1912). His earliest work, Der Kampf mit dem Drachen (comp. 1876), was a juvenile sketch, and is sometimes not counted as part of his operatic oeuvre; his final opera, Des Esels Schatten [de] (comp. 1947–1949), was unfinished at his death and completed by Karl Haussner in 1964.

The Königliches Opernhaus (now the Semperoper) in Dresden, where many of Strauss's operas premiered

List of operas edit

Operas by Richard Strauss[2]
Period[a] Title Genre Act(s) Librettist Premiere Op.[1] TrV[1]
Date Venue
1876 Der Kampf mit dem Drachen ? 1 act Körner Unperformed 44
1892–93 Guntram
(revised 1940)
Opera[3] 3 acts Strauss 10 May 1894;
revised version: 29 October 1940
Weimar, Grossherzogliches Hoftheater (both versions) 25 168
1900–01 Feuersnot
(Fire Famine)[4]
Singgedicht
(sung poem)
1 act Wolzogen 21 November 1901 Dresden, Königliches Opernhaus 50 203
1903–05 Salome Musikdrama 1 act Strauss, based on Lachmann's German translation of Wilde[b] 9 December 1905 Dresden, Königliches Opernhaus 54 215
1906–08 Elektra Tragödie 1 act Hofmannsthal, after Sophocles's Electra 25 January 1909 Dresden, Königliches Opernhaus 58 223
1909–10 Der Rosenkavalier Komödie für Musik 3 acts Hofmannsthal 26 January 1911 Dresden, Königliches Opernhaus 59 227
1911–12 Ariadne auf Naxos[c] Oper 1 act Hofmannsthal 25 October 1912 Stuttgart, Kleines Haus des Hoftheaters 60 228
1915–16 Ariadne auf Naxos,
second version
prologue & Oper 1 act Hofmannsthal 4 October 1916 Vienna, Kaiserliches und Königliches Hof-Operntheater 60 (II) 228a
1914–17 Die Frau ohne Schatten Oper 3 acts Hofmannsthal, after Goethe 10 October 1919 Vienna, Vienna State Opera 65 234
1918–23 Intermezzo bürgerliche Komödie mit sinfonischen Zwischenspielen 2 acts Strauss 4 November 1924 Dresden, Semperoper 72 246
1923–27 Die ägyptische Helena Oper 2 acts Hofmannsthal, after Euripides's Helen 6 June 1928 Dresden, Semperoper 75 255
14 August 1933
(new version)
Salzburg, Kleines Festspielhaus
1929–32 Arabella lyrische Komödie
(lyric comedy)
3 acts Hofmannsthal, after his works[d] 1 July 1933 Dresden, Semperoper 79 263
1933–34 Die schweigsame Frau komische Oper 3 acts Zweig, after Jonson's Epicœne, or The silent woman 24 June 1935 Dresden, Semperoper 80 265
1935–36 Friedenstag Oper 1 act Gregor 24 July 1938 Munich, Bayerische Staatsoper, Nationaltheater 81 271
1936–37 Daphne bukolische Tragödie 1 act Gregor 15 October 1938 Dresden, Semperoper 82 272
1938–40 Die Liebe der Danae heitere Mythologie 3 acts Gregor 14 August 1952 Salzburg, Kleines Festspielhaus 83 278
1940–41 Capriccio Konversationsstück für Musik 1 act Strauss and Krauss, after Casti 28 October 1942 Munich, Bayerische Staatsoper, Nationaltheater 85 279
1947–49 Des Esels Schatten [de]
(completed by Haussner)
Komödie 6 scenes Adler, after Wieland[e] 7 June 1964 Ettal, Ettal Abbey 294

References edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Period during which the opera was written.
  2. ^ Lachmann's German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde.
  3. ^ To be played after Le bourgeois gentilhomme by Molière.
  4. ^ After his story Lucidor, Figuren zu einer ungeschriebenen Komödie (1910) and the comic sketch Der Fiaker als Graf (1925).
  5. ^ Wieland's novel Die Geschichte der Abderiten.

Citations edit

  1. ^ a b c Gilliam & Youmans 2001.
  2. ^ Information is from Murray (2002), unless otherwise noted.
  3. ^ Osborne 1988, p. 1.
  4. ^ Osborne 1988, p. 25.

Sources edit

  • Gilliam, Bryan; Youmans, Charles (2001). "Strauss, Richard". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40117. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  • Murray, David (2002) [1992]. "Strauss, Richard (opera)". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O904818. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  • Osborne, Charles (1988). The Complete Operas of Richard Strauss. North Pomfret: Trafalgar Square Publishing. ISBN 978-0-943955-06-3.
  • Schuh, Willi (1982). Richard Strauss: A Chronicle of the Early Years 1864-1898. Translated by Whittall, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24104-5.