Zemlinsky's opera one-act play based on Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde began work on his play A Florentine Tragedy in 1893, but because of the writer's imprisonment in the course of an infamous smear campaign against him, the play remained a fragment (the charge against Wilde at the time was "homosexual fornication," for which Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labor). Zemlinsky, possibly inspired by his famous contemporary Richard Strauss's Wilde setting of Salomé, transposed Eine Florentinische Tragödie as an operatic one-act opera. In doing so, Zemlinsky anticipated Giacomo Puccini and Feruccio Busoni, who both planned the same thing. A Florentine Tragedy became a roaring operatic success for Zemlinsky, and none other than Alban Berg admitted to having derived significant inspiration from Zemlinsky's opera for his own Büchner setting of Wozzeck as late as eight years later. This excellent quality live recording by the Capriccio label from the Vienna Konzerthaus with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Bertrand De Billy and a hand-picked cast of singers, is one of the extremely rare opportunities to enjoy again this once successful opera, which has now fallen into oblivion.