Heinrich Hollreiser

Josephs Legende, Opus 63, is an “opera without words” or “ballet-drama” composed by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929). The story attempts to reconstruct a particular biblical passage that was given prominence in the Old Testament (Genesis 37-50) centered around the first Joseph’s, parts of the so-called Egyptian episode and the incident in Potiphar’s house (Genesis 37: 36 and 39: 1-23). Although in the biblical story there are no great details about such episode they can be easily imagined, as Strauss and Hofmannsthal did in fact; please refer to Genesis 39: 11-19 for more specifics.

In 1920s Germany, Erich Korngold's work was considered “degenerate” and banned. Eventually, in 1934, he left for Hollywood. There, he made a name for himself as a film composer and only rarely wrote great works for the stage. Many of his quite successful operas, composed between 1913 and 1927, stopped being performed after World War II. Among these was his perhaps most significant work, Die tote Stadt (“The Dead City”), which was performed again for the first time after a long hiatus in 1955 in Munich. Further productions followed. Nevertheless, Götz Friedrich's version of 1983 for the Deutsche Oper Berlin was only the fifth new production of the opera after 1945.