Opera Theater offers rare chance to see Strauss' minor masterpiece 'The Silent Woman'

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Late in his life, composer Richard Strauss said “The Silent Woman” was his beloved opera that was “clapped into a concentration camp.” His librettist of choice, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, had died in 1929, and for a new opera, Strauss turned to writer Stefan Zweig, who was Jewish. Despite difficulties with the Nazi regime, Strauss fought and eventually got permission from Hitler himself to produce the opera in Dresden in 1935 and to include Zweig’s name on the program.