Intermezzo (opera)

Intermezzo (opus 72) is a opera in two acts of Richard Strauss created with Dresden the 4 November 1924 under the direction of Fritz Busch.

Intermezzo is in fact a “comedy middle-class” with orchestral interludes. The booklet was written by the type-setter himself. The history is autobiographical: it takes as a starting point a misunderstanding, which spent one moment in danger the relation of Richard Strauss with his Pauline wife. Richard Strauss had received by error an impassioned love letter of an unknown woman of him.

Characters

Christine, Soprano (Lotte Lehmann was creative role)
Robert Storch, his husband, Kappelmeister, Baryton
Anna, their servant, Soprano
Franzl, their eighteen year old son, role spoken to
the Baron Lummer, Ténor
the notary, Baryton
His wife, Soprano
Stroh, another Kappelmeister, Ténor
a commercial adviser, Baryton
a man of law, Baryton
a singer, low
Fanny, the cooker of Storch, role spoken
Marie and Therese, spoken maidservants, roles
Resi, an young girl, Soprano

Action

The action proceeds with Vienna and Grundlsee in the years 1920.

Famous Kappelmeister Robert Storch is about to leave Vienna. His wife, Christine, who has bad character but good heart, feels neglected, in particular the evening, when her husband is absorbed by his work of musician. Christine goes to Grundlsee, a winter sports resort, where it becomes acquainted with the young Baron Lummer, who courts it. The Baron, an aristocrat without fortune, tries in fact to extort money to him. Christine opens a telegram addressed to her husband and it is furious to note that it is about a love letter written by a named young woman Mitzi Meyer. She makes the wish divorce Robert.

Robert and his friends, among whom one finds the leader Stroh, organize one evening of friendship between men, where one plays charts. During the evening one evokes the unsteady character of Christine. Robert receives a telegram of Christine who announces to him that it will leave it. One finds Christine at a man of law of which it requires council in the organization of his divorce. But the notary suspects that the true reason of this divorce is the relation between Christine and the Baron Lummer. Stroh is Robert realize that Mitzi had confused their names: the love letter in fact was addressed to Stroh and not to Storch. They explain confusion with Christine, who reconciles itself with her husband.

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