Intermezzo (opera)
| Richard Strauss |
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Operas
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Intermezzo is an opera in two acts by Richard Strauss to his own German libretto, described as a Bürgerliche Komödie mit sinfonischen Zwischenspielen (bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes). It premiered at the Dresden Semperoper on November 4, 1924, with sets that reproduced Strauss' home in Garmisch. The first Vienna performance was in January 1927.[1]
The story depicts fictionally the personalities of Strauss himself (as "Robert Storch") and his wife Pauline (as "Christine")[2] and was based on real incidents in their lives. Pauline Strauss was not aware of the opera's subject before the first performance. After Lotte Lehmann had congratulated Pauline on this "marvelous present to you from your husband", Pauline's reply was reported as "I don't give a damn".[3] The most celebrated music from the opera is the orchestral interludes between scenes.
His usual librettist up to that time, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, refused to work on the opera and suggested that Strauss himself write the libretto, which he eventually did after having been refused by other writers. This is why the libretto is not in verse but in prose and even mimics the dialect used by the servants in the play, against the more polished German of the principals.
The opera's title is intended to refer to the intermezzi that used to be staged during the intermissions of serious operas during the 18th century, sort of mini-comic-operas, easy to follow with themes usually about marital confusions and other light comedies.
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[edit] Performance history
The first professional staged US production was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1984, translated into English.[4]
[edit] Roles
| Premiere, November 4, 1924 (Fritz Busch) |
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| Christine Storch | soprano | Lotte Lehmann |
| Robert Storch, her husband, a conductor | baritone | Joseph Correck |
| Anna, their maid | soprano | Liesel v. Schuch |
| Franzl, their eight-year-old son | spoken | |
| Baron Lummer | tenor | Theo Strack |
| The notary | baritone | Robert Büssel |
| His wife | soprano | Elfriede Haberkorn |
| Stroh, another conductor | tenor | Hanns Lange |
| A commercial counselor | baritone | Ludwig Ermold |
| A legal counsellor | baritone | Adolph Schoepflin |
| A singer | bass | Willy Bader |
| Fanny, the Storch's cook' | spoken | Anna Bolze |
| Marie and Therese, maids | spoken | Erna Frese |
| Resi, a young girl | soprano | |
[edit] Synopsis
Setting: Vienna and Grundlsee during a 1920’s winter
The conductor Robert Storch is about to conduct a concert one night. Christine, his wife, feels under-appreciated and dislikes the fact that his work keeps him away during the evenings. Christine goes to a winter resort and meets Baron Lummer, with whom she enjoys a flirtation. Baron Lummer is revealed as a destitute nobleman in search of a loan. At one point, Christine receives a letter apparently addressed to her husband, and opens it. It turns out to be a love letter to him from a young lady, Mitzi Meyer. Christine is furious and intends then to divorce Storch.
Robert and his friends, including the conductor Stroh, play cards one evening, and talk about Christine’s mercurial personality. Christine has mailed a letter to Robert to say that she is leaving him. She visits a notary to try to obtain a divorce. However, the notary suspects that her real motivation is her relationship with Baron Lummer. Stroh and Storch eventually figure out that Mitzi Meyer had confused their names, and actually intended the love letter for Stroh. Christine is apprised of this situation, and she and Storch reconcile.
[edit] Recordings
| Year | Cast: Christine Storch, Robert Storch, Anna, Baron Lummer |
Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra |
Label[5] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Hanny Steffek, Hermann Prey, Gertrud Freedman, Ferry Gruber |
Joseph Keilberth, Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus |
VHS Video Cassette: Lyric Distribution (Legato) Cat: 1818; DVD Video: Legato Classics[6] |
| 1980 | Lucia Popp, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gabriele Fuchs, Adolf Dallapozza |
Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra |
Audio CD: EMI Classics Cat: 7 49337-2 |
| 1983 | Felicity Lott, John Pringle, Elizabeth Gale, Ian Caley |
Gustav Kuhn, London Philharmonic Orchestra |
VHS / DVD? Video: Kultur Cat: CVI 2024 |
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ "Intermezzo". Time, 27 January 1927
- ^ Griffel, Margaret Ross, Review of Norman Del Mar's Richard Strauss: A Critical Commentary on His Life and Works. Volume 2: Notes (2nd ser.), 27(4), pp. 726-726 (1971)
- ^ Del Mar, p. 262
- ^ Bernard Holland, "Strauss' Intermezzo at Santa Fe Opera". The New York Times, 6 August 1984
- ^ Recordings of Intermezzo on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk
- ^ Beth Hart, Reviews of video releases of Intermezzo. The Opera Quarterly, 15(3), pp. 608-612 (1999)
- Sources
- Del Mar, Norman, Richard Strauss: A Critical Commentary on His Life and Work, Vol. 2. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1986)
- Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-140-29312-4
