The libretto of The Silent Woman, which some consider Richard Strauss’s only true comedy, is by Stefan Zweig, a Jew, which at the time of the opera’s premiere had the Nazi racial-purity police up in arms. When they pressured Strauss to withdraw the opera, he refused. When they insisted he strip Zweig’s name from the score, Strauss didn’t budge. In the end, Hitler personally authorized the premiere, but after three performances the opera disappeared from the German stage. Its charms are many: hummable tunes, a rapturous love duet, scintillating pastiche harking back to Monteverdi (a composer unknown to general audiences in Strauss’s time), all driving a well-told tale. Even so, The Silent Woman remains a wallflower. How like Leon Botstein, inveterate champion of neglected genius, to give the piece a spin at his adventurous festival on the campus of Bard College. Harold Wilson appears as a retired sea captain who can bear no noise. Henry Portillo plays his beloved nephew who—oy vey!—has joined a roving opera troupe. Jana McIntyre sings the far-from-silent diva who briefly masquerades as a meek, quiet country mouse. —Matthew Gurewitsch