In the early 1930s, for Richard Strauss — approaching 70 — it was an auspicious moment when Stefan Zweig, a renowned author known for his artful, profound novels and plays, proposed writing a new libretto. In a mutually inspiring collaboration, they created a truly “comic opera” based on a play by Ben Jonson from the Shakespeare period filled not only with striking characters, tempo, and wit, but profound reflection as well. “The opera is a perfect, but perhaps for the twenty-first century,” according to Strauss himself, who in a difficult, dark time created a work of creative compositional virtuosity and a relaxed sense of humor, a story of people longing for rest or who lose themselves in busyness. This will be director Jan Philipp Gloger’s debut and it will be Christian Thielemann’s first new production as general music director, a position once held by Strauss himself.