Profil's Richard Strauss: Scenes of Operas, which constitutes Vol. 18 in its Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series, documents one of the happiest collaborations between a composer and a conductor in history -- the relationship between Strauss and conductor Karl Böhm during the latter's tenure as conductor of the Dresden Semperoper, which lasted from 1934 until 1943. Böhm gave the premieres of Strauss' late operas Die schweigsame frau (1935) and Daphne (1938) in Dresden; there is nothing from Die schweigsame frau here, as the ...
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Profil's Richard Strauss: Scenes of Operas, which constitutes Vol. 18 in its Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series, documents one of the happiest collaborations between a composer and a conductor in history -- the relationship between Strauss and conductor Karl Böhm during the latter's tenure as conductor of the Dresden Semperoper, which lasted from 1934 until 1943. Böhm gave the premieres of Strauss' late operas Die schweigsame frau (1935) and Daphne (1938) in Dresden; there is nothing from Die schweigsame frau here, as the Jewish ethnicity of the libretto's author, Stefan Zweig, caused it to be banned after just eight performances. Three excerpts from Daphne were commercially recorded in 1938, and these are represented here; some collectors deep into historic Strauss opera recordings may know them already, in addition to the 1938-1940 excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier that also help fill out the program. These works are not the main attraction here so much as lengthy excerpts from Die Frau ohne Schatten...
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