BOOKS
469
a symphonic work; only a drama could stimulate in him musical
themes to match the situations and wor:ds. In Stefan Zweig he found
just what he needed-a musically sensitive author who could deliver a
libretto Strauss did not have to alter. In their correspondence we see the
first shy approaches of the Viennese Jewish writer who lived in
Salzburg, to the world's leading composer who lived nearby, just over
the German border, in Garmisch.
The product of their collaboration was
Die schweigsame Frau,
based on Ben Jonson's early seventeenth-century comedy,
Epicoene,
or
The Silent Woman.
The background of the collaboration was the
political upheaval of nazism that would intrude upon their lives and
work. Following Hitler's
Machtergreifung
in January 1933 any perfor–
mance on which a Jewish author had collaborated became illegal.
These two artists, despite their nonpolitical intentions, were forced
to
deal with politics. Strauss became President of the Reich's Music
Chamber "because the goodwill of the new German government in
promoting music and theater can really produce a lot of good." He
further unhesitatingly took the place of Bruno Walter in Berlin "for
the orchestra's sake," and the place of Arturo Toscanini "for the sake of
Bayreuth" when in 1933 they were not permitted to conduct in
Germany. In February 1934, on a visit to Vienna, Zweig reported that
"an artillery barrage blared into the beautiful days." The reference was
to the Schutzbund rising of the Austrian Social Democrats against the
Dollfuss clerico-fascist regime. Zweig was shadowed by German agents
when he visited London, and Strauss reported this to him, complimen–
ting him on his "magnificent conduct. "
As the political and racial criteria of nazism closed in ever tighter
on the writer and composer, Zweig maintained silence for the sake of
work. In Strauss we see the hubris of the artist who thinks he is above
politics and who believes he can "fix" everything on the highest level.
Strauss intercedes with the
Volkischer Beobachter
to
correct a defama–
tion of Zweig. He takes up the case with Propaganda Minister Goeb–
bels and eventually meets with Hitler to gain personal approval for the
performance of
The Silent Woman.
The opera was scheduled for its
world premiere in 1935 in the famous Saxon State Opera in Dresden,
where Strauss' other operas had also opened. There was a final struggle
with the opera management over whether Zweig's name would be
printed on the program. Strauss threatened to leave if his librettist's
name was suppressed, and he got his way. The opera was closed in
Germany after three performances, to be revived after the war.
At the inception of their relationship, Zweig was courting Strauss;
