Hans: Oriental Dances

When her opera Maria von Magdala was premiered at the Vienna Volksoper in 1919, Lilly Scheidl-Hutterstrasser, writing under the pseudonym Lio Hans, caused a sensation and made musical history. For this opera was to remain the only work of music theatre by a female composer performed in Austria until the end of the 20th century. Although she, like Richard Strauss, also composed late Romantic tone poems and operas, and these received a great deal of attention, Maria von Magdala was to remain her magnum opus. The "Orientalische Tänze" come at the beginning of the opera. When the music begins a banquet is taking place near Jerusalem, where Mary of Magdala enchants male guests through her beguiling movements to the oriental dances.