Strauss wrote Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) between 1909-10. It premiered in 1911 in Dresden under the direction of Ernest Schuch. It was the most successful opera of Strauss’s career.
Strauss’s previous opera, Elektra, had been a musical adaptation of a stage play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and his first collaboration with that poet. Hofmannsthal contributed the libretto for Rosenkavalier, and the two artists would go on to collaborate on a total of six operas over the course of their careers (including Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau ohne Schatten).
Der Rosenkavalier is set in 18th-century Vienna, and it takes inspiration (both musically and narratively) from works of the period, specifically, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaroand the plays by Beaumarchais upon which Figaro was based. 1
