Friedenstag

Friedenstag
Opera by Richard Strauss
The composer with Hotter and Ursuleac, singers of leading parts, in 1939
Librettist	Joseph Gregor
Language	German
Premiere	24 July 1938 (1938-07-24) Nationaltheater, Munich

Friedenstag (Peace Day) is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, his Opus 81 and TrV 271, to a German libretto by Joseph Gregor. The opera was premiered at Munich on 24 July 1938 and dedicated to Viorica Ursuleac and her husband Clemens Krauss, the lead and conductor respectively. Strauss had intended Friedenstag as part of a double-bill, to be conducted by Karl Böhm in Dresden, that would include as the second part his next collaboration with Gregor, Daphne. The opera thematically expresses anti-war sentiments, which William Mann has described as "a determined counter to the militaristic policies of Nazi Germany". These caused the work to be shelved after the outbreak of World War II.

Stefan Zweig came up with the idea of the opera, which he outlined in a letter to Strauss following up a meeting between the two at the Salzburg festival in 1934. Both Zweig and Strauss were united in their common opposition to the growing militarism and anti-Semitism of the Nazis. Strauss had hoped to work again with Stefan Zweig on a new project. However, since their previous collaboration of Die schweigsame Frau had ended in the work being banned, Strauss could not work openly with the non-Aryan Jew Zweig. While the idea for the story was from Zweig, he then suggested Gregor as a "safe" collaborator for the actual writing of the libretto. Strauss reluctantly agreed. Zweig's influence on the work nonetheless remained in its "form and dramatic substance". The libretto and draft of the opera were completed quickly, by 24 January 1936 and the orchestration six months later on 16 June.

The opera was premiered at Munich on 24 July 1938 with Clemens Krauss conducting. The opera was performed often around Germany, with Adolf Hitler and other top Nazis attending a performance in Vienna on 10 June 1939, which formed part of the celebrations of Strauss' 75th birthday. Performances were halted soon after the start of the second world war. In May 1949, to celebrate his 85th birthday, there were simultaneous performances of the opera in Paris and Brussels, broadcast by French radio. In Germany, Friedenstag was revived in Munich in 1960 and in Dresden in 1995. Pamela Potter has performed a scholarly analysis of the pacifist and anti-war subtext of the opera. The work was given its United States premiere under the direction of Walter Ducloux at the University of Southern California in 1967. The first professional production in the US took place at the Santa Fe Opera on 28 July 1988 with a cast that included Richard Lewis, Alessandra Marc, and Mark Lundberg.