Strauss, the Pervert, and Avant Garde Opera of the Fin de Siecle
1988; Duke University Press; Issue: 43 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/488397
ISSN1558-1462
Autores Tópico(s)Decadence, Literature, and Society
ResumoI wish to ask a series of questions about the social context of an opera libretto, about an author's intention in selecting a theme for an opera, about the cultural significance of selecting any given text to be set to music. My object will be one of the most popular operas of the twentieth century, Richard Strauss's Salome, first performed in the Dresden Opera on December 9, 1905. My contention is that in selecting a libretto, composers take into consideration much more than aesthetic appropriateness. They are aware of the cultural implications, including images of disease, and of the force that cultural presuppositions will have in shaping the audience and drawing it both into the work, as well as, perhaps even more important, into the theater. With Richard Strauss the problem of the libretto seems on first glance rather trivial, for did he not simply, to quote his own words, purge the piece [i.e., Oscar Wilde's French drama of 1892] of purple passages to such an extent that it became quite a good libretto.' Would it not, therefore, be sufficient to read the play, to understand the drama's admittedly complex genesis, in order to comprehend Strauss's libretto? I hope to make
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