The working relationship between Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) was one of deep mutual respect. In response to Hofmannsthal’s sudden death in July 1929, Strauss wrote the following letter of condolence to the writer’s widow:

This genius, this great poet, this sensitive collaborator, this unique talent! No musician ever found such a helper and supporter. No one will ever replace him for me or the world of music. The wonderful libretto [Arabella] which he sent me so shortly before his tragic end, and for which in my supreme happiness I was only able to thank him in a brief telegram, will remain a last glorious page in the work of this noble, pure, high-minded man.

The text for Arabella had not been fully crafted, however, and Strauss was aware of several aspects that he still wanted to revise to enhance the drama of Acts II and III. But Hofmannsthal had become for Strauss a partner whose literary depth and sensitivity towards musical word setting could not be matched. Therefore, rather than employing another writer or making changes himself, Strauss chose to set the text exactly as it stood as a final tribute to his beloved friend and collaborator.

The opera was composed during 1929-32 and the premier took place in Dresden on July 1, 1933. Strauss dedicated the work to Fritz Busch who was due to conduct the first performance. But Busch had been abruptly removed from his position as Director of the Dresden Opera shortly beforehand, in response to his outspoken criticism of the National Socialists who had recently come to power. Such acts of government intervention, as well as a rise in anti-Semitic feeling were later to have implications for Strauss himself. Hofmannsthal was labeled as a “half Jew,” and Strauss’s subsequent collaboration with a “full Jew,” Stefan Zweig, was heavily scrutinized. The seizure of a letter by Strauss in which he expressed to Zweig a disregard for Nazi race laws culminated in the imposition of a periodic ban on his music in the summer of 1935.

In the period leading up to these events however, it seems that Strauss tried to maintain good relations with those in power. For example, he gave a manuscript copy of Arabella as a wedding gift to Hermann Göring, one of the highest ranking Nazi officials. In the decades immediately after the war, some music historians interpreted gestures of this kind as revealing fascist sympathies on Strauss’s part, and as a consequence, works from this period have suffered somewhat from neglect. The earlier stage pieces, Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier for example, have come to dominate Strauss’s image as an opera composer, despite the fact that the 1930s was Strauss’s most prolific decade for opera composition.

In recent years however, access to archival materials and correspondence have allowed scholars such as Michael Kater and Bryan Gilliam to produce a more thorough and nuanced picture of Strauss’s political allegiances, and to provide new insights into the workings of the government itself and the role of musicians within it. Gilliam surmises that although “Strauss showed little courageous opposition during this grim twelve-year period . . . neither was he a Nazi sympathizer, nor did he share their anti-Semitic beliefs.” From this perspective, Strauss’s engagement with political figures in the early 1930s may have rather served to promote music reforms such as extended copyright laws and increased royalties. The composition of the lighthearted Arabella represents a stage in the composer’s career before many of the realities of fascism that were soon to dominate his public and private lives had impacted his world.