The Later Operatic Works of Richard Strauss

Extract

Almost exactly 350 years have passed since the invention of that marriage-of-the-arts which we call Opera. How frequently during this time has its impending collapse been prophesied; how often has it been pronounced dead! Yet again and again, like a woman who never ages, it has rejuvenated itself, kept alive, assumed a different shape, changed, its face and appeared in some new guise. And today once more, after a long period of stagnation, we find ourselves in the presence of a regeneration of the musical theatre with new goals and new tendencies both as regards creation and presentation.