[2] Strauss worked on the score in 1937, 1938 and into 1939, although he was pre-occupied with completing Daphne, developing ideas with Gregor and finally replacing him as librettist for Capriccio, and then succumbed to illness, which caused postponement for several months into 1940.

Arrangements were made for mid-August performances in 1944, but, following the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler, Joseph Goebbels declared "total war" and closed all theatres within the Third Reich, resulting in the work not being allowed a public staging.

The Nazis did, however, permit a single dress rehearsal in Salzburg, conducted by Clemens Krauss on 16 August, in order that Strauss and an invited audience could hear the work performed.

The eminent critic and Strauss biographer, Michael Kennedy, has written:The treatment of the many themes and motifs is amazingly inventive, the orchestral colours glow and shine – with Greek gold and mediterranean sunlight...

It was given as part of the 1982 and 1985 summer festival seasons by The Santa Fe Opera conducted by company founder and lifelong Strauss enthusiast John Crosby.

[9] In 2006 Renée Fleming recorded the final interlude and Danae's aria from act 3 with the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Valery Gergiev for a Decca CD entitled Homage: The Age of the Diva.

The Bard SummerScape Festival mounted a new production of the full opera in 2011 with Meagan Miller in the title role, with the American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leon Botstein and directed by Kevin Newbury;[10] it was also recorded and released commercially in digital format.

Jupiter pays off Pollux's creditors with a shower of gold and, realising that Danae is far more than a passing amorous fancy, makes one desperate last attempt to win her back.