Joseph Gregor

Joseph Gregor was an Austrian theatre historian and librettist, trained in musicology under Guido Adler and in stagecraft under Max Reinhardt, joining the Austrian National Library in 1918 and founding its theatre collection in 1922. Stefan Zweig proposed Gregor as his successor when Nazi pressure forced him to withdraw from Strauss's operas in 1935, and Gregor wrote the librettos for Friedenstag and Daphne, both staged in 1938, and Die Liebe der Danae, composed in 1940 but not staged until 1952. Strauss admired him as a historian but thought little of his librettos, and the partnership was never an easy one.