STRAUSS, RICHARD. (1864-1949). German composer of the operas Der Rosenkavalier and Salome, as well as other 20th-century classics such as Also Sprach Zarathustra.. ALS. (“Dr. Richard Strauss”). 1¾pp. 8vo. Montreux, November 15, 1948. On Montreux-Palace stationery. To French composer and writer GUSTAVE SAMAZEUILH (1877-1967). In German with translation.

“Many thanks for [your] letter of the 13th. I already told Dr. Roth that I have no interest at all in having my operas sung in Paris in German by foreign singers. I do not write Italian operas, where the only thing that matters is that as many high tones as possible are held as long as possible and until requested. The cultivated and theatrically refined French public can demand that my opera texts, which also have literary value, be presented in their language so that they can understand them.

Did the entire excellent Rosenkavalier and Salome ensemble at the Opera (Lubin etc.) vanish in the so-called ‘resistance’ in Paris, and is there no new personnel of French artists to be had which can have studied their parts by the end of May? This would mean a great deal to me! Dr. Roth is also of my opinion: in Paris French singers!

I have sent your pretty Capriccio to Dr. Roth in Lugano and recommend it to the conductor Nussio for Radio Ceneri!...”

Earning a reputation as both a composer and conductor, Strauss shocked audiences with Salome, an operatic setting of Oscar Wilde’s controversial play of the same name, which he saw in German translation. For this opera, Strauss eschewed the use of a librettist, and unconventionally set Wilde’s translated text to music, word-for-word. “The choice to deliver Salomé more or less unmediated was scandalous at the time, since memories of Wilde’s trial for indecency, in 1895, had hardly faded. Moreover, the play’s presentation of the biblical story of Salome, the stepdaughter of King Herod of Judaea, elicited accusations of blasphemy. John the Baptist, the object of Salome’s desire, is treated as a somewhat ridiculous figure; the court of King Herod features homosexuality and incest; and, of course, the story ends with an act of necrophilia, as Salome kisses the prophet’s head,” (“The Endless, Grisly Fascination of Richard Strauss’s ‘Salome,’” The New Yorker, Ross). Salome premiered in Dresden on December 9, 1905 and the opera’s salacious nature created a scandal and faced censorship in Germany, Vienna, London, and New York. In 1907, Strauss worked with Romain Rolland to compose a French version of Salome which was widely performed by soprano Mary Garden.

Composed from 1909-1910, with a libretto by noted Austrian poet and playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Der Rosenkavalier was an immediate success upon its 1911 premiere and its popularity has never flagged. In it, Strauss displays an expert use of the female voice to portray an entire range of emotions, and the three soprano parts have become the standard by which operatic talent is judged.

Well known French soprano Germaine Lubin (1890-1979) made her debut at the Paris Opéra in 1915 and, during her more than 30-year tenure, became known for her Wagnerian roles. She also sang in the Paris premieres of Der Rosenkavalier in 1927 and Elektra in 1932 and, later, performed in Ariadne auf Naxos under Strauss’ direction in Vienna. During the German occupation of France in World War II, she appeared in Der Rosenkavalier as well as other productions at the Paris Opéra with the Berlin Staatsoper, and premiered the French production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Opéra-Comique in 1943. A close friend of collaborationist French Marshal Philippe Pétain, she was arrested in 1944 as a Nazi sympathizer. Despite an acquittal at her 1946 trial, her property was confiscated and Lubin was sentenced to degradation nationale and interdiction de séjour (exile). Despite her protestations of innocence, her career never recovered.

In our letter, written a mere three years after the end of World War II, Strauss appears to make a sarcastic reference to the French Resistance, which conducted guerilla warfare against the Nazi occupation and collaborationist Vichy regime. Under the Nazis, Strauss was made president of the Reichsmusikkammer and replaced Arturo Toscanini as director of the Bayreuth Festival after the latter resigned in political protest. However, Strauss pushed back on the Third Reich’s music bans, continuing to perform works by Mahler and Mendelssohn and he, too, was found innocent during his 1948 trial before the denazification tribunal.

A trained lawyer and musicologist Ernst Roth (1896-1971) made a name for himself as a music publisher at the Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag and Universal Edition. After the rise of Hitler forced his immigration to London, Roth worked for Boosey & Hawkes, despite his internment in a prisoner-of-war camp in Huyton. After Ralph Vaughan Williams intervened on his behalf, Roth returned to Boosey & Hawkes where he translated German operas and made piano transcriptions, championing Strauss’s work. In 1943, he acquired for Boosey & Hawkes the rights to Strauss’ works from his Berlin publisher.

In October 1945, Strauss went to Switzerland to improve his health, even though his assets had been seized and frozen. “He only intended spending the winter there; but he stayed on for over three years. During this period, he was greatly incommoded by post-war restrictions on royalty and other payments,” (“Correspondence with Dr. Roth,” Tempo). Despite objections to Strauss’ behavior during WWII, Roth organized the London Strauss Festival in 1947, providing the financially strained composer with much needed funds.

Swiss conductor Otmar Nussio (1902-1990) was trained in Milan and Rome and, from 1938-1968, conducted the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. For the ensemble, Strauss composed his Duet-Concertino in F major, which the orchestra premiered on April 4, 1948, a performance broadcast on Radio Lugano. Our letter mentions Radio Monte Ceneri, an Italian-language radio station in Switzerland.

Written on recto and verso of a single sheet and in overall fine condition. With Strauss’s hand-addressed envelope.