# What are your three most favourite/the best Strauss operas?



## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

Please vote for a maximum of three operas.


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

I was expecting to find Die Fledermaus! Duhhh!


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

post-minimalist said:


> I was expecting to find Die Fledermaus! Duhhh!


OMG - and I just realized that I forgot to include Wiener Blut as well!  I guess that later on I'll have to post a part two of this poll!


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

Ah! Wine, women and song! (and not nescesarily in that order!)


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## theclassicalguy (Jan 21, 2009)

Salome, Elektra, and Die Frau for me. I like my Strauss operas nasty.


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## Atabey (Oct 8, 2008)

Die Rosenkavalier,Elektra and Capriccio...


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## JoeGreen (Nov 17, 2008)

Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, and Aradine auf Naxos for me.


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

Der Rosenkavalier is one of my most favourite operas by any composer. Salome and Ariadne auf Naxos are the other two that got my vote although I love Elektra and Die Frau Ohne Schatten just as much. The others also have some fabulous music but are a bit uneven in quality.


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## ecg_fa (Nov 10, 2008)

I voted for Rosenkavalier (def. first-- also one of my very fave operas by anyone), Arabella & Capriccio-- though Frau Ohne Schatten I like almost as much as the other two, & perhaps more to watch than those two-- but gave listening the edge. Daphne and Ariana auf Naxos would be next-- then Elektra/Salome (I'm not as crazy over his early more 'Wagnerian' ones if some great moments certainly).

Ed


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

****.... I wan't another vote...

I didn't see Capriccio.....


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I have only tried three Strauss operas: Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, and Capriccio. Of those Capriccio is rather boring, but the other two are great.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Die Rosenkavalier- Die Frau Ohne Schatten and Ariadne auf Naxos,
( Salome is stunning but I stick with 3 above )


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

My bias for Rosenkavalier places it near the top of my operatic loves by any composer. The libretto has barely a wasted word and the combination of harmony and melody and humanity - I love that Octavian’s behavior is never treated as selfish - makes it for me one of the greatest works of art I know. And I haven’t even used the word “trio”. Before last Spring I enjoyed “Ariadne” as a big, beautiful mess. Then I saw the Met staging and would never have believed it could be so coherent, so full yet light, and so plain wonderful! I loved Karita Mattila’s Salome and recently discovered Stratas remarkable film. Strauss success at achieving the gorgeously fetid world must have driven him to attempt the same, but different, with Electra....alas, without the same success. Frau Ohne Schatten symphonically stands above the rest and I’m dying to hear it again. Daphne is very worth the time if you have a leaning toward Strauss and Capriccio is not although there are some great sounds late. Eager for the others!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I'm surprised that Elektra (which I consider Strauss' masterpiece) only received 13 votes. I find it difficult to choose between Salome, FROSCH and Rosenkavalier. Rosenkavalier could well be a better opera than the other two. In the end I went with my favourites. I realise that Strauss gets rather a raw deal on these pages and I don't think he deserves to be _so _lambasted.

N.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Picking three favorites doesn't imply that I'm crazy about any of them. Give me the final scene of _Salome_ (head optional), the trio from _Rosenkavalier_, and the falcon and petrification motifs from _Die Frau ohne Shatten_, and I go home satisfied.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Woodduck said:


> Picking three favorites doesn't imply that I'm crazy about any of them. Give me the final scene of _Salome_ (head optional), the trio from _Rosenkavalier_, and the falcon and petrification motifs from _Die Frau ohne Shatten_, and I go home satisfied.


Serious question, NOT a challenge....don't you find the harmonic palette of Rosenkavalier, particularly the last 20 minutes of act 1, of a very high order?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ScottK said:


> Serious question, NOT a challenge....don't you find the harmonic palette of Rosenkavalier, particularly the last 20 minutes of act 1, of a very high order?


I'm not sure what a high-order harmonic palette is. I find no fault with Strauss's harmony. I'm just not always keen on what he uses it for. The means may not justify the end.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Woodduck said:


> I'm not sure what a high-order harmonic palette is. I find no fault with Strauss's harmony. I'm just not always keen on what he uses it for. The means may not justify the end.


Not defining that high order thing too specifically but the kind of thing you were probably thinking of when you mentioned Puccini as having the richest use of harmony amongst the great Italian composers… Think I’ve got you accurately on that one. So, not to talk you into it but, in the first act of Rosenkavalier towards the end in a great performance I hear the orchestra just taking shifts… Not intensely melodic moments though they are melodic… And They evoke emotional responses from me again and again very much connected to what I see the Marshallin going through up on stage


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

ScottK said:


> Serious question, NOT a challenge....don't you find the harmonic palette of Rosenkavalier, particularly the last 20 minutes of act 1, of a very high order?


Tbh, this point in music history is filled with "avant-gardists", and, as someone put it, "Wagner-imitating crowd". I'm not necessarily saying Strauss belongs in either category, or his harmonic palette isn't high order, but it's hard for me to tell who uses harmony that "stands out". It would be helpful if someone explained with specific parts, like how the member Janxharris did with Sibelius. But under my "prejudice", it seems like there is an excess of everything, it's hard for me to recognize subtlety. I find it hard to describe, but it seems like "things are way too similar to and way too different from each other."


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

hammeredklavier said:


> Tbh, this point in music history is filled with "avant-gardists", and, as someone put it, "Wagner-imitating crowd". I'm not necessarily saying Strauss belongs in either category, or his harmonic palette isn't high order, but it's hard for me to tell who uses harmony that "stands out". It would be helpful if someone explained with specific parts, like how the member Janxharris did with Sibelius. But under my "prejudice", it seems like there is an excess of everything, it's hard for me to recognize subtlety. I find it hard to describe, but it seems like "things are way too similar to and way too different from each other."


I think the most important point to me is the idea of feeling. I think probably like woodducks sharing of Wagners advice about feeling through the music, when I inquired about Peter Grimes. For me, In the end of act one of Rosenkavalier it’s the orchestra, .....it isn’t subtle.......I find So many phrases rapturously beautiful and absolutely connected to the sadness of What the Marshallin is going through. I ascribe most of the poignant moments to harmonic shifts that seem to break my heart. My take on the experience you’re describing…with things seemIng too similar.... Is that Strauss essentially has not hooked you! Completely valid! Pretty much what I was saying over on the other thread about Peter Grimes, so far, for me.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

My 'Top 3' favorite Strauss operas are (in order): _Der Rosenkavalier_, _Daphne_ and _Salome_. I like many of his others (I'm a Straussian after all), but these are the ones I'd take to the desert island with me.


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