Strauss’s Evolving Relationship with Wagner’s Creative Legacy

Strauss’s collaboration with the poet and dramatist Hugo von Hofmannsthal on Elektra (1909) spawned a creative relationship that swiftly moved in new stylistic directions with Der Rosenkavalier (1911) and Ariadne auf Naxos (1912). Ideas that would lead to Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919) started germinating in these years, with Wagner’s creative legacy proving to be a potent wellspring for both poet and composer. In this presentation, we will consider some of the way’s Wagner’s legacy is threaded through this evolutionary phase for Strauss and turning point in history.

Katherine Syer has taught at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in the theatre studies and musicology departments, and in the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. Her areas of expertise include historical and contemporary opera/theatre production, grounding her work as a dramaturg for spoken and lyric theatre. Syer’s scholarship focusing on Wagner’s creative development and legacy has been published in several volumes and journals. Her monograph Wagner’s Visions: Poetry, Politics and the Psyche in the Operas through ‘Die Walküre’ appeared in 2014 (Boydell and Brewer). An international opera critic for over 30 years, Syer is an avid performing arts advocate and frequent public speaker.