Overview
Capriccio, Op. 85, is the final opera by German composer Richard Strauss, subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music". It received its premiere performance at the Nationaltheater München on 28 October 1942. Strauss and Clemens Krauss wrote the German libretto, but its genesis came from Stefan Zweig in the 1930s, and Joseph Gregor further developed the idea several years later. Strauss then took it on, but finally recruited Krauss as his collaborator. Most of the final libretto is by Krauss.
The opera originally consisted of a single act lasting close to two and a half hours. This, in combination with the work's conversational tone and emphasis on text, has prevented it from achieving great popularity. But at Hamburg in 1957, , who directed the opera at its premiere in Munich, inserted an interval at the point when the Countess orders chocolate, and other directors have often followed suit, including performances at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The final scene for Countess Madeleine is often heard as an excerpt. Capriccio received its American professional premiere at The Santa Fe Opera in 1958 after the Juilliard School staged it in 1954 with Gloria Davy and Thomas Stewart as the aristocratic siblings.
Roles
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
!bgcolor=ececec|Role
!bgcolor=ececec|Voice type
!bgcolor=ececec|Premiere, 28 October 1942(Conductor: Clemens Krauss)
|-
|The Countess
|soprano
|Viorica Ursuleac
|-
|Clairon, an actress
|contralto
|Hildegard Ranczak
|-
|Flamand, a musician
|tenor
|Horst Taubmann
|-
|Olivier, a poet
|baritone
|Hans Hotter
|-
|The Count, the Countess's brother
|baritone
|Walter Höfermayer
|-
|La Roche, director of a theatre|bass
|Georg Hann
|-
|Monsieur Taupe
|tenor
|Karl Seydel
|-
|Italian singer
|soprano
|Irma Beilke
|-
|Italian singer
|tenor
|Franz Klarwein
|-
|The Major-Domo
|bass
|Georg Wieter
|-
| colspan="3" | Musicians and servants|-
|}
Synopsis
The theme of the opera can be summarized as "Which is the greater art, poetry or music?" This was a topic of discussion at the time of the setting, as in a 1786 Salieri opera named for the issue, Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the Music and Then the Words). This question is dramatized in the story of a Countess torn between two suitors: Olivier, a poet, and Flamand, a composer.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
