Daphne (opera)
Role Voice type Premiere cast , 15 October 1938 ( Conductor : Karl Böhm )
Peneios , a fisherman bass Sven Nilsson
Gaea , his wife contralto Helene Jung
Daphne , their daughter soprano Margarete Teschemacher
Leukippos , a shepherd tenor Martin Kremer [ de ]
Apollo tenor Torsten Ralf
Four shepherds baritone , tenor , basses Arno Schellenberg , Heinrich Tessmer , Hans Löbel , Erich Händel
Two maids sopranos Angela Kolniak , Marta Rohs
Roles
Daphne, Op. 82, is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, subtitled Bucolic Tragedy in One Act. The German libretto was by Joseph Gregor. The opera is based loosely on the mythological figure Daphne from Ovid's Metamorphoses and includes elements taken from The Bacchae by Euripides. The opera premiered at the Semperoper in Dresden on 15 October 1938, originally intended as a double bill with Strauss' Friedenstag, but as the scale of Daphne grew, that idea was abandoned. The conductor of the first performance was Karl Böhm, to whom the opera was dedicated.