Strauss: Daphne, Op. 82, TrV 272

Soon after the end of the Second World War, works by Richard Strauss were taken back into the repertoire of the Dresden State Opera. As early as 1945 the provisional venue of the Tonhalle (later the “Kleines Haus”, the small auditorium of the Staatstheater) was the location for a new staging of Ariadne auf Naxos and at the same place in 1946, another sign of restitution was seen in the revival of Die schweigsame Frau, which had lasted for only a few performances after the premiere in 1935 on account of the Jewish origins of writer and librettist Stefan Zweig. The following year was memorable for the legendary 1947 staging of Salome in Kurhaus Bühlau. 1948 brought a new production of Rosenkavalier in the new and larger Staatstheater auditorium known as the “Grosses Haus”. At all these Strauss operas from 1945 to 1948, General Music Director Joseph Keilberth was in overall charge of the music. Subsequent to Keilberth’s departure, the next new Strauss production was directed by newly appointed GMD Rudolf Kempe: Daphne on June 11, 1950, the source of the performance to be heard on this album (a live recording of the broadcast that day by the Dresden station of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk).