Strauss, Richard

the short score notated in pencil on up to eight systems per page (each system of three or four staves), an early composition draft of the scene for Jupiter and the four queens in Act 3, scene 2 (including Jupiter's Farewell, with divergences from the published version), and a shorter passage for Danae and Jupiter in Act 3, scene 3, a completely different setting of the words from the final version of this opera, with two short passages added in brown ink,

4 pages, folio, 32-stave paper, framed and glazed on both sides, overall size: c.39 x 57cm, [c.1939-1940]

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This is a fine large-scale operatic sketch for Richard Strauss's penultimate opera, Die Liebe der Danae, containing music not found in the published version.  The opera is a mythological comedy ("heitere Mythologie") treating the tale of Jupiter, Danae and the shower of gold, and giving full rein to Strauss's luxuriant comic talent.  He composed the opera in 1939, finishing it in June 1940, but it was not immediately performed.  The planned production at Salzburg in 1944 was cancelled on Goebbels's orders after the dress rehearsal, the only occasion on which Strauss saw the opera staged.  The manuscript begins with the scene in Act 3 where the four queens (Semele, Europa, Alkmene & Leda) sit down to supper with Jupiter; they flirt and remind him of how he had seduced them in the past, but the scene ends with a song in which Jupiter takes leave, not only of his past loves, but of his philandering life altogether.  Del Mar writes of this important scene (at one time Strauss wanted to call the opera Jupiters letzte Liebe), "the music accordingly rises to a climax of passionate intensity", which caused the composer to demand further text from the librettist Joseph Gregor. 

The manuscript contains the following early drafts of passages in the opera:  
page 1, titled by Strauss "Souper/ Gavott": a draft of Act 3, scene 2, "Schmausenden Gattinnen kann Juno nicht zürnen" for the four queens [a draft of the passage found at Figure 50 to Figure 55 in the vocal score by Oertel of Berlin], continuing onto the following page:

page 2 (numbered "2" by Strauss) including Semele's "Wie neugierige lugt ich" and Alkmene's "Wenn aber der Gatte" ): [Figure 55 to Figure 60], continuing on:

page 3: including Jupiter's farewell "Lebwohl, Europa!" and Ihr seht nur stets die eine Gestalt!", an early draft, shorter than that finally published, the final six bars written at the top of page 4 and signed by him in brown ink [Figure 60 to Figure 66]

page 4 (system 2): Act 3, scene 3, containing an entirely different composition of the duet for Danae and Jupiter in Midas's hut, from that found in the opera, with Jupiter's words "Dies Umfassen, goldnes Leuchten", and Danae's "goldener Blätterfall, Selige Kühle, herrliches Zelt", set one after the other, rather than together [cf.Figure 109 to Figure 114].