Editing Richard Strauss (section)

===Opera===
{{See also|List of operas by Richard Strauss}}
Around the end of the 19th century, Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two attempts in the genre, ''[[Guntram (opera)|Guntram]]'' (1894) and ''[[Feuersnot]]'' (1901), were controversial works; ''Guntram'' was the first significant critical failure of Strauss's career, and ''Feuersnot'' was considered obscene by some critics.<ref>Tim Ashley, "[https://www.theguardian.com/reviews/story/0,3604,404766,00.html Feuersnot]". ''[[The Guardian]]''. London. 30 November 2000. Retrieved 27 October 2007.</ref>

[[File:Schmutzer-Richard Strauss.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Richard Strauss engraved by Ferdinand Schmutzer (1922)]]
In 1905, Strauss produced ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'', a somewhat [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonant]] modernist opera based on the [[Salome (play)|play]] by [[Oscar Wilde]], which produced a passionate reaction from audiences. The premiere was a major success, with the artists taking more than 38 curtain calls.<ref>Derrick Puffett ''et al'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=ABrNsZOXIr4C ''Richard Strauss: "Salome"''] (1989), p. 4</ref> Many later performances of the opera were also successful, not only with the general public but also with Strauss's peers: [[Maurice Ravel]] said that ''Salome'' was "stupendous";{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=145}} [[Gustav Mahler]] described it as "a live volcano, a subterranean fire".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=149}} Strauss reputedly financed his house in [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]] completely from the revenues generated by the opera.<ref name=wildean>{{cite journal|jstor=48569305|title=Richard Strauss's ''Salome'' and Oscar Wilde's French Text|journal=The Wildean|pages=63–73|number=52|date=January 2018|author=[[James Morwood]]}}</ref> As with the later ''Elektra'', ''Salome'' features an extremely taxing lead soprano role. Strauss often remarked that he preferred writing for the female voice, which is apparent in these two sister operas—the male parts are almost entirely smaller roles, included only to supplement the soprano's performance.

Strauss's next opera was ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' (1909), which took his use of dissonance even further, in particular with the [[Elektra chord]]. ''Elektra'' was also the first opera in which Strauss collaborated with the poet [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]] as his librettist. The two subsequently worked together on numerous occasions. For his later works with Hofmannsthal, Strauss moderated his harmonic language: he used a more lush, melodic late-Romantic style based on Wagnerian chromatic harmonies that he had used in his tone poems, with much less dissonance, and exhibiting immense virtuosity in orchestral writing and tone color. This resulted in operas such as ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' (1911) having great public success. Strauss continued to produce operas at regular intervals until 1942. With Hofmannsthal he created ''[[Ariadne auf Naxos]]'' (1912), ''[[Die Frau ohne Schatten]]'' (1919), ''[[Die ägyptische Helena]]'' (1928), and ''[[Arabella]]'' (1933). For ''[[Intermezzo (opera)|Intermezzo]]'' (1924) Strauss provided his own libretto. ''[[Die schweigsame Frau]]'' (1935) was composed with [[Stefan Zweig]] as librettist; ''[[Friedenstag]]'' (1935–36) and ''[[Daphne (opera)|Daphne]]'' (1937) both had a libretto by [[Joseph Gregor]] and Stefan Zweig; and ''[[Die Liebe der Danae]]'' (1940) was with Joseph Gregor. Strauss's final opera, ''[[Capriccio (opera)|Capriccio]]'' (1942), had a libretto by [[Clemens Krauss]], although the genesis for it came from Stefan Zweig and Joseph Gregor.
<!-- 15 April 2021: Commented out because Operabase doesn't produce those statistics any more.
According to statistics compiled by [[Operabase]], in number of operas performed worldwide over the five seasons from 2008/09 to 2012/13, Strauss was the second-most performed 20th-century opera composer, ahead of [[Benjamin Britten]] and behind only [[Giacomo Puccini]].<ref name=operabase200820013>[http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en& The five seasons 2008/9 to 2012/13: Composers]. [[Operabase]]. (Note: "Composer and opera tables are based on counts of performance runs over the five seasons from 2008/09 to 2012/13, i.e. how many times a work was programmed not the number of performances."){{Better source|date=June 2020|reason=Operabase doesn't produce those statistics any more.}}</ref> Strauss tied with [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]] as the eighth most-performed opera composer from any century over those five seasons.<ref name=operabase200820013 /> Over the five seasons from 2008/09 to 2012/13, Strauss's top five most performed operas were ''Salome'', ''Ariadne auf Naxos'', ''Der Rosenkavalier'', ''Elektra'', and ''Die Frau ohne Schatten''.<ref>[http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en&break=0&show=opera&no=100&nat= The five seasons 2008/9 to 2012/13: Operas (expanded)]. [[Operabase]]. (Note: "Return to main statistics page for an explanation of the figures". The main statistics page says: "Composer and opera tables are based on counts of performance runs over the five seasons from 2008/09 to 2012/13, i.e. how many times a work was programmed not the number of performances."){{Better source|date=June 2020|reason=Operabase doesn't produce those statistics any more.}}</ref> The most recent figures covering the five seasons 2011/12 to 2015/16 show that Strauss was the tenth most performed opera composer, with ''Der Rosenkavalier'' overtaking ''Salome'' to become his most performed opera (the ranking of the other four remains the same).<ref>[http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en&splash=t opera base 2017], extracted 17 April 2017.{{Better source|date=June 2020|reason=Operabase doesn't produce those statistics any more.}}</ref> -->