Richard Strauss
Stefan Zweig after Epicoene or The silent woman (1609) by Ben Jonson

Komische Oper in drei Aufzügen
Cantankerous outbursts and unpredictable temper tantrums are everyday events in the life of the well-to-do Sir Morosus, who reacts with enormous hypersensitivity to all kinds of sounds and noises, be they bell ringing or the music of an opera troupe ushered in by the unexpected return of his long-lost nephew Henry. He almost beats his housekeeper to death and disinherits Henry for devoting his life to this noisy art form, but the cunning barber and the other members of the troupe cook up a perfidious little farce about an allegedly silent woman for Morosus to marry, but the relationship turns into a nightmare.

In his first opera after the death of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Richard Strauss composed the music to Stefan Zweig’s adaptation of The Silent Woman by Ben Jonson, regarding this work as his only comic opera.

In German with German surtitles