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Richard Strauss in March

Intermezzo

Richard Strauss [1864 – 1949]

Information on the piece

A bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes in two acts
Libretto by Richard Strauss
First performed at the Schauspielhaus Dresden on 4 November 1924
Premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 25 April 2024

2 hours 45 minutes | 1 interval

In German with German and English surtitles

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

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About the performance

About the work
Audiences exiting the theatre after the world premiere of Richard Strauss’s eighth opera INTERMEZZO felt wrong-footed and out-of-sorts. Instead of drawing on classical material or mythology, the composer had served up a straight story with him and his wife as characters, showing contempt for the boundary between private life and literary work. What they hadn’t realised was that Strauss had once again demonstrated that he was not only hip to musical-theatre trends but could also make them his own: for INTERMEZZO is Strauss’s response to 1920s audiences’ desire for “modern” opera subjects and can be seen as part of a line of avant-garde works by the likes of Arnold Schönberg (VON HEUTE AUF MORGEN) and Paul Hindemith (NEUES VOM TAGE). Unlike them, however, Strauss remains true to his classical sound and creates another of his famous soprano roles, shimmering with cantilenas, in the form of the main character, Christine, the fictional composer’s wife.

And in the same way that Christine represents Strauss’s real-life wife Pauline, so the successful kapellmeister Robert Storch stands in as Richard Strauss himself. Even the misunderstanding that almost destroys the fictional marriage is based on fact. The old comic device, a seductive letter from a woman of dubious virtue that falls into the wrong hands, leads Christine to believe that her husband is two-timing her. The misapprehension is cleared up and everything ends happily, yet the INTERMEZZO incident is more a way of painting the complex, sensitive picture of a woman who is unfulfilled but also aware that she is defined by her role as the caring spouse of a successful musician.


About the production
INTERMEZZO is the middle element in a Richard Strauss trilogy running at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in which director Tobias Kratzer shines a spotlight on phases in the trajectory of a relationship. Following on from ARABELLA, which explored the difficulties of courtship, INTERMEZZO studies the “wearisome lowlands”. And as with ARABELLA Kratzer makes out a modernity in the material that transfers well to the 21st century: on the one hand we have a woman looking for meaning beyond that of a wife but unable to make the break from her husband; on the other hand the real-life husband reinforcing his patriarchal role by creating a character based on his wife, thereby immortalising his own view of the relationship. Because Strauss is also creating a monument to his own artistry in the form of complex symphonic interludes – another subject explored by the production.

Our articles on the subject

The private domain is musical
Maria Bengtsson – My private place of peace: Café Wildau, Werbellin Lake
Intermezzo - The synopsis
A Marriage Selfie Posted in 1924: “Intermezzo” by Richard Strauss, or Opera as a Relationship Mirror
Toying with his own image

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09
DEC

Adventskalender in der Tischlerei: Das 9. Fensterchen

Today in the Tischlerei: ‘Ding Dong! Merrily on High’
with the VoiceChangers under the baton of Rosemarie Arzt
5 p.m. / Tischlerei
Duration: approx. 25 minutes / Free admission


This evening, as part of the Advent calendar, you can experience the VoiceChangers. These young singers have often been members of the Deutsche Oper Berlin children's chorus since primary school and have appeared on the main stage in productions such as TOSCA, CARMEN, PARSIFAL, LA BOHÈME, WOZZECK and TURANDOT. The group for those with changing voices was founded by Rosemarie Arzt 12 years ago and since then has offered young singers the opportunity to make their voices heard together, even during the complicated phase of voice breaking, when the larynx and vocal folds grow and access to the familiar range of tones changes considerably at times.

Today, they are singing Christmas carols from different countries in the Tischlerei as part of the advent calendar. They will be carrying us off to a festive Christmas world with classics such as ‘Maria durch ein Dornwald ging’ and ‘O du fröhliche’, Spanish Christmas songs, English and American pop hits such as ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘The Christmas Song’.