| Richard Strauss's Daphne (1937), the thirteenth of fifteen operas by the composer, was written during the most turbulent, yet prolific decade of his career as opera composer. Joseph Gregor, a better theater historian than playwright, wrote the libretto. His working relationship with the composer was fraught with artistic problems and misunderstandings. Nonetheless, a fairly felicitous text emerged and Daphne remains one of the most popular late operas of Strauss.;By the composer's own admission, the most difficult task was to prepare preliminary sketches. The task was twofold. First, Strauss composed evocative themes that, according to the composer, "originate spontaneously out of situations and words." Second, by manipulating these themes, he created more extended sketches and began to work out much of the symphonic continuity. Sketches to Daphne clearly exemplify Strauss's symphonic orientation at this incipient stage.;Most Strauss operas comprise four fundamental compositional stages, and Daphne is no exception. They are: a musically annotated libretto, sketchbooks, particell, and orchestral score. The sketchbooks themselves can be subdivided into two layers: preliminary and fair sketches. These sketches not only show much about the development of the score, but reveal much about Strauss's operatic concept, which is, in essence, symphonic. |
