Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer, among the most widely translated by the 1930s, known for novellas including Letter from an Unknown Woman and lives of Marie Antoinette and Mary Stuart. His only opera libretto, Die schweigsame Frau, after Ben Jonson's Epicoene, gave Strauss what he called his easiest, most lighthearted score. Because Zweig was Jewish, Strauss's refusal to drop his name from the 1935 Dresden premiere caused the opera's suppression after four performances; Zweig then ended the collaboration outright. He and his wife took their own lives in Brazilian exile in 1942, days after finishing his memoir The World of Yesterday.