Richard Strauss: Operas

[BBMmk2]

I thinbk my favourite Richard Strauss opera has to be Der Rosenkavalier. I dont know why I have singled this one out, it just always seems to get myn imagi9nation. I dont aplways by DVDs of opera; in some ways the visual elements spoilit for me.

[Nick Armstrong]

I thinbk my favourite Richard Strauss opera has to be Der Rosenkavalier. I dont know why I have singled this one out, it just always seems to get myn imagi9nation.

Well the Rose Presentation scene, and then the famous trio and closing duet scenes are pretty overwhelming

I also like the end of the First Act when the Marschallin muses about time, trying to stop all the clocks in her house to stop its march... The music accompanying her lines about time trickling through your fingers like sand is utterly brilliant I think

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well the Rose Presentation scene, and then the famous trio and closing duet scenes are pretty overwhelming

I also like the end of the First Act when the Marschallin muses about time, trying to stop all the clocks in her house to stop its march... The music accompanying her lines about time trickling through your fingers like sand is utterly brilliant I think

The last chapter of Jeannette Winterson's novel, Art & Lies consists of the full score of the final Trio - nothing else. Works superbly when you know the Music, but I wonder what anyone who doesn't know it makes of it! (Possibly the same frustration I feel at the Chinese quotations in Pound's Cantos.)

[Richard Tarleton]

One of my three favourite operas, alongside Meistersinger and Figaro. A word for von Hofmannsthal, a librettist of great humanity and profundity. One of the greatest composer/librettist collaborations, alongside Verdi's with Boito and Wagner's with, er, himself.

[Roehre]

One of the joys of Capriccio - it's all very conversational, no screaming

With Rosenkavalier it's my favourite Strauss opera

[Belgrove]

2014 marks the 150th anniversary of Strauss' birth, so there are number of his stage works in the pipeline.

From next month Glyndebourne has a new production of Ariande auf Naxos, that most sophisticated of confections in a setting almost designed for it. In July the ROH has two concert performances of Capriccio with the creamy voiced Rene Fleming as the Countess, but it is a hot ticket and only returns are available.

Next season at the ROH sees revivals of Elektra and Ariadne. Elektra is an amazing piece to witness, not least to see the gargantuan orchestra put through its paces. It is a compact, extreme and visceral piece of theatre, a natural corollary to the sonic and psychological developments forged in Salome. Also showing is Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Strauss' most ambitious score. The plot is as daft as a brush, but the music is stupendous and astonishing, giving full measure of Strauss' mastery of orchestration.

Once besotted, I have fallen out of love with Der Rosenkavalier as I've got older and more cynical. It is not funny, is mawkishly sentimental, prolix and has too much note spinning for its length. I've never taken to Arabella, which is almost Rosenkavalier reprised without the good bits. Even the prelude to its Act 3 is a near copy of the rumpy-pumpy business that initiates Rosenkavalier. Friedenstag is all very worthy, especially considering the climate in which is was written, but rather dull.

I much prefer the rarely performed bucolic Daphne, containing some lovely writing for the soprano voice and with that miraculous transformation scene at the end. Try Haitink with Lucia Popp if you can get hold of it.

Strauss has a general weakness when it comes to his unsympathetic writing for the heroic tenor, he tests them cruelly, often to destruction and usually without much pleasure for the listener.

Die agyptiche Helena is worth seeking out, if nothing else but to witness the character of 'The Omniscient Mussel' - you'll believe a mollusc can sing. Also in mythic mode is Die Liebe der Danae, complete with Jupiter's golden shower.

I do not know his two Wagnerian early works Guntram and Feuersnot, nor the two chatty domestic 'comedies', Die schweigsame Frau or Intermezzo.

With such a large body of operatic works, one would expect to have a few duds. But when Strauss is good, he is out of the top draw.

[arthroceph]

I've always equated Ariadne with the movie "The Player" with Tim Robbins .. both have their storylines chopped up during their storyline! A geek's recursive dream!

[David-G]

I should preface this by saying that unlike many of our friends here, I somehow don’t have much affinity for much 20th century music. And so I always assumed that Strauss was “modern” and that I would not like it. Thankfully I realised my error in due course, but I hate to think of the 20 years of Strauss operas that I missed. The revelation was a television broadcast of “Arabella”, with Gundula Janowitz. My conversion was total and complete. The truthfulness of the portrayal of the characters, the sympathy with which they are portrayed, the superb singing, the tunes, the glass of water (!)... All enraptured me, and I have been a devotee ever since. “Rosenkavalier” was a later discovery, and I have seen some wonderful productions. I don’t need to dwell on the joys of “Rosenkavalier”. But “Arabella” is very special.

The dam having been thus breached, I have since seen most of the other well-known Strauss operas. I love “Salome”, the continuity and forward momentum of it are terrific. (A lot of this is of course due to Wilde.) But Elektra at Covent Garden was overpowering.

I have seen “Ariadne” a couple of times, and never quite got into it; but a good friend insists that she loves it dearly, and I am in hope that the Glyndebourne performance this year will convince me. I have seen “Capriccio” a couple of times at Glyndebourne several years ago, with Felicity Lott and with Kiri te Kanawa, but again I feel that I have not quite understood this properly yet. Perhaps the Covent Garden performances will convince me.

Then there is “Die Frau ohne Schatten”. I have seen this at Covent Garden two (or three?) times, in the wonderful Hockney production. Despite its length and its strange invented mythology, this also has an amazing forward momentum. The sheer power and intensity when the Emperor is turning to stone is immense, and the redemption of and by the Empress at the end is the most wonderful climax. I saw another wonderful production of this at the Edinburgh Festival two years ago, by the Mariinsky. I am in dread at what Covent Garden are going to do to it after the disaster of “Onegin”. Why could the wonderful Hockney designs not have had another outing?

Also two years ago (I think?) I saw a wonderful “Intermezzo”, with Scottish Opera. Some years ago Covent Garden did “Die Aegyptische Helena”. This was a concert performance. I enjoyed it, but am waiting for a production for it to make it full impression. The ending of “Daphne” is simply wonderful. It was one of my father’s favourite pieces of music. I have never yet seen a production.

I hope that one of the companies will do “Arabella” again soon! The accepted view seems to be that “Arabella” is a poor relation to “Rosenkavalier”. I dispute that utterly (though I will grant that the Fiakermilli’s pyrotechnics are perhaps excessive). It is the truth of the work and the sympathy with the characters that win me over.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The revelation was a television broadcast of “Arabella”, with Gundula Janowitz. My conversion was total and complete. The truthfulness of the portrayal of the characters, the sympathy with which they are portrayed, the superb singing, the tunes, the glass of water (!)... All enraptured me, and I have been a devotee ever since.

This one, David-G?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arabella-Weiner-Philharmoniker-Solti-DVD/dp/B0011WMWX4/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1365024709&sr=1-1

[Hornspieler]

Originally Posted by David-G
The revelation was a television broadcast of “Arabella”, with Gundula Janowitz. My conversion was total and complete. The truthfulness of the portrayal of the characters, the sympathy with which they are portrayed, the superb singing, the tunes, the glass of water (!)... All enraptured me, and I have been a devotee ever since.
This one, David-G?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arabella-Wei...5024709&sr=

Isn't it wonderful to know that in the mid 20th century, when the "slide rule" composers were producing those strange noises that were sometimes interesting but could definitely not be described as music, that there were still composers like Richard Strauss who knew how to write a captivating melody line to "soothe the savage breast"?

HS (I haven't gone yet.:p)

[Parry1912]

Die Frau ohne Schatten is probably my favourite although I love Elektra and Salome almost as much. But there are beautiful things in all of them - the opening of Act 2 of Die ägyptische Helena, for example. What surprises me is how few recordings there are of some of the operas (e.g. Intermezzo) considering how well-known Strauss is.

I keep hoping that EMI will reissue all of Wolfgang Sawallisch's recordings in one of their bargain boxes.

In the meantime I would recommended this for 86p!

Or this for £2.03

[Suffolkcoastal]

I don't know all of the operas, but of the one's I do know, some I like and some less so. Salome is terrific and Elektra fascinating. I find Der Rosenkavalier very beautiful and quite captivating, and am very impressed with Die Frau ohne Schatten (I must listen to that again soon). Ariadne auf Naxos I'm not too keen on, and it frankly rather bores me and I was very disappointed by it the first time I heard it, the same is true of Intermezzo and Arabella, though both of these do have some attractive moments. Capriccio I do rather like however, some of the music really is rather intoxicating and makes you want to go running to the piano and play the harmonies over and over again. The other operas I'm afraid I don't know, and apart from brief extracts have never heard in full. I would be intrigued to hear his early Wagnerian Guntram though.