Intermezzo (opera)

1924 opera by Richard Strauss

Intermezzo, Op. 72, is a comic opera in two acts by Richard Strauss to his own German libretto, described as a Bürgerliche Komödie mit sinfonischen Zwischenspielen (bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes). It premiered at the Dresden Semperoper on 4 November 1924, with sets that reproduced Strauss' home in Garmisch. The first Vienna performance was in January 1927.

The story depicts fictionally the personalities of Strauss himself (as "Robert Storch") and his wife Pauline (as "Christine") and was based on real incidents in their lives. Pauline Strauss was not aware of the opera's subject before the first performance. After Lotte Lehmann had congratulated Pauline on this "marvelous present to you from your husband", Pauline's reply was reported as "I don't give a damn". The most celebrated excerpts from the opera are the orchestral interludes between scenes. His usual librettist up to that time, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, refused to work on the opera and suggested that Strauss himself write the libretto, which he eventually did after having been refused by other writers. This is why the libretto is not in verse but in prose and even mimics the dialect used by the servants in the play, against the more polished German of the principals. The opera's title is intended to refer to the intermezzi that used to be staged during the intermissions of serious operas during the 18th century, sort of mini comic operas, easy to follow with themes usually about marital confusions and other light comedies.

The UK premiere was at the Glyndebourne Opera on 15 June 1974 (sung in English), with subsequent productions in 1975 and 1983 (with a BBC Broadcast on 26 August 1983). The first professional staged US production was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1984, translated into English.

RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 4 November 1924Conductor: Fritz BuschChristine StorchsopranoLotte LehmannRobert Storch, her husband, a conductorbaritoneJoseph CorreckAnna, their maidsopranoLiesel v. SchuchFranzl, their eight year old sonspokenFritz Sonntag Baron LummertenorTheo StrackThe notarybaritoneRobert BüsselHis wifesopranoElfriede HaberkornStroh, another conductortenorHanns LangeA commercial counselorbaritoneLudwig ErmoldA legal counsellorbaritoneAdolph SchoepflinA singerbassWilly BaderFanny, the Storch's cookspokenAnna BolzeMarie and Therese, maidsspokenErna FreseResi, a young girlsoprano