Feuersnot (Fire-Famine)

by Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949).
Singgedicht in one act. 1901. Libretto by Ernst von Wolzogen.
First performance at the Dresden Hofoper on 21st November 1901.

With a libretto by the founder of the satirical Berlin Überbrettl cabaret, Strauss's Singgedicht (sung poem) pokes fun at the people of Munich, where his own earlier opera Guntram had failed, and where Wagner had made enemies. In 12th century Munich the hero Kunrad, disciple of an older magician, is tricked by a beloved but respectable girl and takes his revenge by using a spell to extinguish all fires in the city. Consummating his love in an orchestral love- scene, Kunrad relents, to general rejoicing.