How to Order | Order a Multi Pack | Subscribe | Shop Merchandise
Composer Richard Strauss was born on June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany into a musical background (but was no relation to the famous "waltz" family). His father Franz was a successful horn player who worked frequently for Richard Wagner. However, Franz Strauss was a conservative. He guided his son's musical training and encouraged the ideas and traditions of Schumann and Brahms.
Richard Strauss's meeting with Alexander Ritter (a violinist who was married to Wagner's niece) was of great importance. The two became friends and spent hours talking about the structure and form of Wagner and Liszt. These ideas came together to influence Strauss’s composing voice in the tone poem Don Juan (1889). The audience's reaction was strong and mixed but Strauss had grabbed their attention. He had made his mark and found a niche.
Subsequent tone poems included Tod und Verklärung (1889), Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (1894), Also sprach Zarathustra (1896), Don Quixote (1897), and Ein Heldenleben (1898). In 1894 he married the singer Pauline de Ahna, for whom he wrote his first songs, including Morgen and Cäcilie. It seemed natural that he follow the dramatic instincts he exhibited in his tone poems by composing works for the operatic stage. After two unsuccessful efforts, Guntram (1894) and Feuersnot (1901), he had a great success with Salome (1905), based on the play by Oscar Wilde. It caused a sensation, not just for its lurid subject matter, but also for the music, which explored new areas of tonality and dissonance.
The overriding eroticism of the Salome was shocking to audiences and many attended performances simply to decry it, as for any other reason. Some feared that Salome would destroy Strauss's career, but in fact it was a financial success for the composer. Elektra (1909) marked the beginning of Strauss's collaborations with the librettist Hugo von Hoffmansthal, with whom he also worked on Der Rosenkavalier (1910), Ariadne auf Naxos (1916), and Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919). After von Hoffmansthal's death, Strauss found new collaborators, and went on to write Arabella (1933), and Capriccio (1940).
During the war years, Strauss became the "court composer" for the Third Reich. Quietly critical of Hitler's dictatorship, he nonetheless was criticized in later years for not having used his position to more openly refute the regime. His last years saw the completion of Capriccio and his final work, the Four Last Songs (1948), the latter a triumphant conclusion to a long and brilliant career. He died Sept. 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Strauss was influenced by Liszt, Wagner and Mozart, but ultimately his music stands alone and still holds the ability to shock, thrill and ravish its audience.
Librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was born on Feb. 1, 1864 in Vienna, Austria, into a Spanish-Jewish family. Hofmannsthal’s career began at an early age, and as a teenager he published his first poems and essays. He studied law at the University of Vienna, but abandoned it in favour of Roman philology, obtaining his doctorate in 1898. Hofmannsthal continued writing poetry and essays until the age of 26, but then switched to writing for the theatre in hopes to better influence political developments.
Hofmannsthal and Strauss first collaborated on Elektra in 1909, which was followed by five other operas. He died on July 15, 1929, shortly after the suicide of his son Franz.
A scene from the Canadian Opera Company production of Ariadne auf Naxos. Photo Credit: © 2011 Michael Cooper