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Southbank Centre: Royal Festival HallBelvedere Road, London, Greater London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
Dates/times in London time zone
Entranced and inspired by Oscar Wilde's dark, death-ridden play, Alexander Zemlinsky conjured up his most colourful orchestral canvas in the one-act opera A Florentine Tragedy.
Puccini claimed Zemlinsky's most overtly Straussian score was 'a rival to Salome but more human - more real.' The narrative of infidelity and rapprochement wasn't lost on Zemlinsky's former lover Alma Schindler, who was outraged when she saw the Vienna premiere.
Zemlinsky might not have found that ever-elusive fame and fortune with his opera, but he poured his all into it, revealing more about the troublesome Alma than any of her former lovers would dare.