Page "Opera" Paragraph 25

Opera would never be the same after Wagner and for many composers his legacy proved a heavy burden.

On the other hand, Richard Strauss accepted Wagnerian ideas but took them in wholly new directions.

He first won fame with the scandalous Salome and the dark tragedy Elektra, in which tonality was pushed to the limits.

Then Strauss changed tack in his greatest success, Der Rosenkavalier, where Mozart and Viennese waltzes became as important an influence as Wagner.

Strauss continued to produce a highly varied body of operatic works, often with libretti by the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, right up until Capriccio in 1942.

Other composers who made individual contributions to German opera in the early 20th century include Zemlinsky, Korngold, Schreker, Hindemith, Kurt Weill and the Italian-born Ferruccio Busoni.

The operatic innovations of Arnold Schoenberg and his successors are discussed in the section on modernism.