“Daphne” by Richard Strauss at the Berlin State Opera – Culture

Musically, everything begins as seemingly harmlessly as it closes. The woodwind group whistle happily, the view widens, the heart warms, the idyll is perfect. This is how Richard Strauss imagined it for his rarely performed opera “Daphne”. An ancient pastoral idyll, a shepherd’s play that ends in tragedy. The opera – late work of a non-political? – was premiered in 1938 at the Dresden Semperoper and could pass as a prime example of artistic escapism in politically unbearable times.