Larry Wolff

When Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl and Empress Zita embarked on their exile from Austria in 1919, it marked the conclusion of the Habsburg family's rule over Europe after several hundred years. In this episode, historian and author Larry Wolff joins Luke Morgante of the Botstiber Institute to underline the significance of this transition, and how Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss' fictitious opera, Die Frau Ohne Schatten (1919), reflected the sociopolitical changes that were rapidly reshaping Europe.

In Wolff's new book, The Shadow of the Empress: Fairy-Tale Opera and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy (Stanford, 2023), he tactfully explains the importance of this period, highlighting the similarities of Hofmannsthal and ...