Comedy for music in three acts by Richard Strauss

Libretto by Hugo Hofmannsthal

Witty, elegant, erotic, melancholy: the woman in society is viewed in the panorama of a fake world. A society lady in a midlife crisis breaks out of her marriage with a young lover, but soon insightfully leaves him to a younger woman. A bon vivant who believes he can exchange fresh meat and money for his aristocratic name is expelled from his seat. A boy of distinction moves from one great love to another and a young daughter from a newly rich family still believes in the one and only. It's all a sham, full of waltz music, kitsch and sugar-coating - with a dash of biting irony and yet full of truth.