The period of Mahler’s directorship of the Vienna Court Opera corresponded with the emergence of that city’s Secession movement, with a younger generation of daring visual artists challenging the prevailing aesthetic orthodoxy. Although Mahler himself evinced relatively little interest in the debate or indeed in the visual arts themselves, the rise of the Secession did affect him, through his wife’s continuing bonds with that world and through his occasional collaborations with Secessionists: first at the 1902 Beethoven exhibition centered around Max Klinger’s monumental sculpture, and more deeply in the ongoing work with Alfred Roller on operatic productions. At the same time, more conservative elements, such as the historicism evident in the Ringstrasse building projects or the Gründerzeit grandeur of Hans Makart, also had their impact, not least for their high commercial and social profile. A survey of these competing currents gives some sense of the lively, messy cultural milieu in which Mahler spent his peak years as a European conductor and administrator.

In spite of Mahler’s tyrannical bearing as an orchestral conductor, and his preference for composing in complete isolation, collaboration was in fact central to his success as a performing musician. In the realm of opera, it was collaboration that eventually enabled him to realize, in living form, his artistic aspirations and to create what we commonly think of today as the role of the modern opera director. The contributions of his collaborators in Vienna, above all the innovative graphic artist Alfred Roller (1864–1935), illustrate the areas in which Mahler relinquished his dictatorial control of operatic production, and the reasons that pushed him to this personally difficult step. Roller’s modernist reading of Wagnerian theory, informed by a belief that scenery and costumes should not fool the eye but rather “create the atmosphere of the drama,” made fundamental contributions to the style of production that became Mahler’s signature in Vienna.

From his early experiences as a conductor to the final performances of his operas, Richard Strauss collaborated with the most accomplished artists in the German-speaking theater. These associations set standards for productions of his stage works which were essential for their short- and long-term success. Important collaborators included the directors Max Reinhardt and Rudolf Hartmann, choreographers Heinrich Kröller and the duo of Pino and Pia Mlakar, and designers Alfred Roller and Ludwig Sievert. These and other partnerships flourished in the cities which Strauss favored for his premieres: Dresden, Munich, and Vienna. Under the auspices of the Salzburg Festival, Strauss and his stage collaborators established a vital legacy of production that continues into the present.