American Symphony Orchestra Performs Strauss' First Opera GUNTRAM At Carnegie Hall

Music Director Leon Botstein conducts the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in a rare performance of Strauss' first opera, Guntram, at Carnegie Hall on Friday, June 6 at 8 pm. 

For the ASO's final concert this season, the cast showcases Metropolitan Opera star soprano Angela Meade  acclaimed tenor John Matthew Myers; baritone Alexander Birch Elliott and bass-baritones Christopher Job, who performed in multiple roles this season at the Met, and Met Opera veteran Kevin Short.

The first of Strauss' 14 operas, Guntram is notable as both his only opera to center on a male character, and to include a role (Freihild) composed for his wife, a renowned singer of the day. Although the Wagner-like opera remains a work of great musical beauty, it was panned in Strauss' hometown of Munich at its 1895 premiere, and all future performances of Guntram were subsequently canceled, a development that underscores the rarity of this Carnegie Hall performance. The 1983 U.S. premiere of Guntram took place in New York City, and the opera has not been performed there since then. 

Strauss' Guntram

Friday, June 6, 2025, at 8 pm, Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage

Pre-concert Talk at 7 pm

American Symphony Orchestra

Leon Botstein, Conductor

Angela Meade, Freihild

John Matthew Myers, Guntram, a singer

Kevin Short, The Old Duke

Alexander Birch Elliott, Duke Robert

Christopher Job, Friedhold, a singer

Rodell Rosel, The Duke's Jester

Katharine Goeldner, Old Woman

Bernard Holcomb, Old Man

Bard Festival Chorale

James Bagwell, Music Director of the Bard Festival Chorale

Richard Strauss: Guntram (Opera in Three Acts), Op. 25 (1887-93, rev.1939)

Completed in 1893, Richard Strauss' first opera, Guntram, is a story of love, guilt, and renunciation, revealing a young Strauss positioning himself as a successor to Wagner. Strauss' mastery of orchestral and vocal-writing techniques, and the melodic arcs that anticipate such later, more famous operas such as Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier, make a strong argument in Guntram's favor for a prime position in Strauss' compositional output, instead of the footnote it has received. The story follows Guntram, a German poet and singer who wants to save the suicidal Freihild from her malicious husband, Duke Robert. In an Act II swordfight, Robert is killed by Guntram, who is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Guntram and Freihild then confess their love for each other, and she offers to free him from prison so they can go off together. But in the end, Guntram seeks a solitary path of redemption for falling in love with another man's wife, breaks his lute, and vows never to sing again. The opera's early unpopularity was such a piercing setback for the composer, he mounted a grave marker in his backyard that read: Here lies the venerable, virtuous young Guntram— Minnesinger, who was gruesomely slain by the symphony orchestra of his own father. May he rest in peace!