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Ute Selbig as Anna, Maria Bengtsson as Christine and Christoph Pohl as Hofkapellmeister Robert Storch | © Semperoper Dresden/Monika Ritterhaus 

A century after it was first unveiled, Richard Strauss's 'bourgeois comedy' Intermezzo, still feels bracingly – even uncomfortably – modern. In it, Strauss takes his penchant for operatic autobiography to an extreme, placing barely disguised versions of himself and his famously difficult wife, Pauline, centre stage and basing the plot of his own libretto on a crisis that blew up a decade into their nearly 60-year marriage.  

In Dresden, a hundred years almost to the day since the city played host to the work's premiere, Axel Ranisch's breezy, entertaining new production embraces the piece warmly, playfully revelling in its (auto)biographical layers. Before we hear a note of the opera, for example, Maria Bengtsson – playing Christine, the wife of Kapellmeister Richard Storch – takes to the stage with conductor Patrick Hahn to perform Strauss's 'Cäcilie'.  

A voice-over then announces the premiere of Storch's new opera at the Semperoper. Projections (video by Falko Herold) show a pair of actors (Katharina Pittelkow and Erik Brünner) as the Kapellmeister and his wife sitting down in their box to watch the new work. As the opera progresses, we see her reactions, their falling out and subsequent making up, while in Act 2 they join their singing counterparts on stage as their fates meld together. Witty animated sequences reference other Strauss operas throughout, too, while their heroines, embodied by seven further actors, shadow Christine throughout the evening. She is admitted to their ranks at the close.  

James Ley as Baron Lummer and Maria Bengtsson as Christine | © Semperoper Dresden/Monika Ritterhaus

There's a lot going on, then, and Ranisch indulges in some liberties with the text and with history: Intermezzo's premiere actually took place in Dresden's Schauspielhaus, not in the Semperoper. But the production sweeps such niggles aside with its warmth and good humour, and beneath the many layers it stages the drama – and the relationship at its heart – movingly, convincingly and, in the best sense, conventionally.  

Saskia Wunsch's stylish sets create a flexible world of cut-out Jugendstil panels. The costumes (Alfrad Mayerhofer) wouldn't have looked out of place in the premiere a century ago; Bengtsson's Christine, in particular, cuts a fine, handsome figure. She projects a believable character and sings beautifully, too, even if too many words fall by the wayside and the voice is a size or two smaller than ideal. Pohl's Kapellmeister is bluff, appealing and impeccably sung.  

The not-so-nice but dim Baron Lummer (eloquently sung by James Ley) is presented as something of an interloper from another era, casting the occasional knowing glances to the audience and dancing with Christine – with a group of doppelgängers – in a manner that's more Beyoncé than ball room. The other roles, including a wonderfully salty performance from Ute Selbig as the long-suffering maid Anna, are very well taken.  

After his turn at the keyboard, Hahn conducted with authority and sure pacing on opening night: the domestic scenes rattled by; the marvellous interludes were by turns exhilarating and – in the case of 'Träumerei am Kamin' – deeply moving. The playing of the Staatskapelle Dresden was superb, putting a seal on an eminently enjoyable homecoming for this quietly revolutionary opera.   

Until 9 December. semperoper.de