Richard Strauss acquired an early reputation as a composer and conductor before winning international fame for his tone-poems, culminating in Ein Heldenleben in 1898. In 1905 he provoked outrage with his first successful opera, Salome, the first of a series eagerly anticipated by contemporary audiences. In a long life Strauss also added to the repertoire of German song, summing up a romantic tradition, as he had in the nostalgic opera Der Rosenkavalier. For Molière’s play, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Strauss recreated the French era of Lully, in a score full of wit and good humour. His opera, Intermezzo, broke new ground, being a conversation opera recounting a true domestic quarrel between the composer and his wife. The scenes were linked by a series of depictive orchestral interludes that Strauss later made into a four-movement suite.