Amok (1934)

Stephan Zweig was a great writer and also the most popular of his time. He had to leave Austria when the Nazis took over. He is too good a writer to be forgotten, but when I visited Vienna and asked, no one knew about him. He translated and wrote the lyrics for Richard Strauss's last opera, "The Silent Woman". It is a play by Englishman Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare and worth being known in his own right. It was played one time in Nazi Germany before it was banned. Strauss knew the risks but insisted on Zweig as the writer. It has rarely been performed, unfortunately, but there are a couple of recordings after the war which you can find. One is from former East Germany and another from the Salzburger Festspiele 1959 in Austria.

I have been a fan of Fréhel for years and fortunately almost all she recorded has been edited on CD's.