Compiled from the correspondence of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig by Margaret Hogan
With Cyril Shaps as Strauss, Emrys James as Zweig

After the death of Hugo von Hofmannsthal in 1929, Strauss needed another librettist. In 1931 he met Zweig, who wrote The Silent Woman for him. Strauss was delighted with the libretto. But before the opera was produced, the Nazis were in power, and this opera by a Jewish author had its premiere only by special dispensation from Goebbels and Hitler. Strauss pressed Zweig to write another opera for him - anonymously if necessary - and they planned Friedenstag. But it was not to be.
(Friedenstag can be heard next Sunday)