Strauss During the War Years

Extract

When the second world war began, arrangements for the celebration of Strauss's seventy-fifth birthday had been completed despite the shadows cast by the approaching catastrophy. They culminated in performances of six Strauss operas which, given before an audience still international in character at the Munich State Opera in August 1939, testified to the endeavours of Clemens Kraus and his collaborators to produce Strauss's stage works in exemplary performances with the composer's closest collaboration as to his final intentions in respect of style. During the first years of the war it was possible to extend this plan, and in October 1942 the ninth of Strauss's operas, ‘Capriccio,’ was first performed in Munich. The outbreak of war took Strauss by surprise in Baden (Switzerland); and in the course of discussing the opera the composer revealed his deep concern at the disaster which the Hitler régime had brought about, and his contention that the war would end in catastrophy for Germany.