Die Liebe der Danae

Premiere on 07. February 2025

Composer Richard Strauss. Libretto von Joseph Gregor unter Benutzung eines Entwurfs von Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

recommended for ages 16 and up

Hilarious mythology in three acts (1952)

In German language. With German and English surtitles. New Production.

The premiere will be broadcasted live on BR-Klassik radio.

>>> to the introductory matinee

Medienpartner

Danae must marry a wealthy man, to settle her father’s debts. All dream of gold here, and Danae more than all others. A powerful man takes an interest in her and sends another ahead. It would appear the right husband has been found. But, of course his wealth comes with a condition, which stands in the way of true happiness. Danae must, Danae can choose between wealth and love, between dreams and reality, between the promises of wealth and riches, and of love and all its happiness.

The “cheerful mythology” of Die Liebe der Danae reassembles various legends and characters of Greek antiquity, and recounts the story of a woman, who successfully asserts her love against the reason of state and capriciousness of the gods. What appears inconceivable in the scoring of similar baroque period material, which in Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen leads to doom and destruction, is possible here.The god stands aside and frees the way for the happiness of two people. Framed by a squad of comic figures and music in which the gold always glitters, and which all scatter after here.

With full orchestra and gigantic sounds, Richard Strauss looks back in his late work to the motifs of his own operas and the history of music. He would not live to see the 1952 world premiere. The piece was last restaged at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 1988, and it will now be interpreted by the team surrounding the Strauss specialists, Claus Guth (director) and Sebastian Weigle (conductor).

A team of proven Strauss experts, whose members have already collaborated numerous times at the Bayerische Staatsoper, comes together for Die Liebe der Danae. Following on from Luisa Miller (2009), Bluthaus (2022) and Semele (2023), director Claus Guth now stages a production for the fourth time at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and his first by Richard Strauss here, whose operas he has already worked on extensively, including Ariadne auf Naxos at the Opernhaus Zürich, Salome at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, and Die Frau ohne Schatten as a co-production between Milan, London and the Staatsoper Berlin, among others. Sebastian Weigle, until 2023 General Music Director at the Oper Frankfurt, has been conducting operas by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner at the Bayerische Staatsoper since 2014, and will now conduct a new production for the first time. At the Oper Frankfurt, together Sebastian Weigle and Claus Guth have staged Daphne in 2010, Der Rosenkavalier in 2015 and Elektra in 2023. As with Semele, Michael Levine, who also worked on The Cunning Little Vixen in 2022 and at the Opéra national de Paris brought us Capriccio and Elektra together with director Robert Carsen, is responsible for the stage design. Costume designer Ursula Kudrna, who collaborated with Claus Guth on Salome at the Bolshoi Theatre, among other productions, will now work for the first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper.