Bard Summerscape 2011 to Present R. Strauss' Die Liebe der Danae, the Greatest Opera You’ve (Probably) Never Heard, by Seth Lachterman

Gustav Klimt, Danae. oil on canvas, 1907, Galerie Wöhrle, Vienna

Die Liebe der Danaë

Libretto by Joseph Gregor
Based on a scenario by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Music by Richard Strauss

First N.Y. Fully Staged production
July 29 – August 7, 2011

The Richard B. Fisher Center f or the Performing Arts at Bard College

The American Symphony Orchestra
Leon Botstein, Conductor

It’s a bit of an exaggeration to imply that Strauss’s penultimate opera, Die Liebe der Danaë, is really so obscure. However, the bizarre history of its belated première in 1952, three years after the composer’s death, and the opera’s extraordinary performance demands, have kept this work tucked away, overshadowed by the well-loved and more frequently performed Capriccio, Strauss’s very last opera.

Read the full review in New York Arts

(download)