# Is This The Most Enchanting Opera By Strauss?



## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

Here are a few comments / assessments on Strauss's final opera _Capriccio_:

*1)* "Capriccio is Strauss's most enchanting opera. None of his opera scores is more refined, more translucent, more elegant, more varied. It is also the nearest he came to unflawed perfection in a work of art. It is an anthology or synthesis of all that he did best, and it is as if he put his creative process into a crucible, refining away coarseness, bombast and excess of vitality"

-- Michael Kennedy (Strauss scholar)

*2)* "This work has been lavishly analyzed by Strauss scholars in countless books, monographs and journals for decades-and has acquired an exalted reputation even among those who, as a general rule, dislike the music of Strauss. There are only a handful of works in the entire repertory as immensely musically rewarding and with such sublime music as "Capriccio". I think "Capriccio" reveals Strauss's genius at its highest level of inspiration. The musical line-warm, glorious, autumnal-does not falter once for two uninterrupted hours of sheer rapture. It is a miraculous score with a ravishing musical argument, radiant from beginning to end. One could make a compelling argument that it is the most beautiful and most eloquent of all 20th Century operas, and entirely sui generis"

-- Rebecca Schmid (Opera critic)

*3)* Strauss's final opera _Capriccio_ almost means too much for me to give an overview of why I value it so highly. The temptation would be to list every detail, every felicity. It just happens to be my favourite opera of all time, and its gradual ascension into the fringes of the canon fills me with great joy. The fact that it has been presented in a Metropolitan Opera broadcast is further indication of its rising status but it's definitely not for everyone; fans of the overtly dramatic and loud probably won't get it. Even Strauss himself said that it was..... *"No work for the public, only a fine dish for connoisseurs"*

In his memoirs, Joseph Volpe (former manager of the Met):

_"We mounted Strauss's last opera, 'Capriccio', which gives the audience two hours of pedantic Viennese chatter before cutting loose at the end with fifteen minutes of gorgeous soprano singing."_

For me, that sentence proved that Volpe should _never_ have been permitted within 500 yards of an opera house.

-- Anonymous opera blogger

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Question:

Do you share their enthusiasm for and/or entirely endorse their judgment of _Capriccio_?

Is this undoubtedly worthy opera really that good?


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I feel that I must have listened to a different opera....well part of a different opera. After the lovely string opening I have not been able to work up the slightest interest. I am sure I have not given it a fair chance, but I just haven't been given much motivation to give it that fair chance yet. It has been my first full Strauss opera, surely not the best starter choice. I should have gone with Rosenkavalier, my own fault.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Sonata said:


> I am sure I have not given it a fair chance, but I just haven't been given much motivation to give it that fair chance yet.


as with any R. Strauss, reading the libretto will add a lot to the enjoyment of the work (maybe even more so with this one, eh?). Personally I love it but then I love conversation pieces on the nature of artwork in general 

I think it is *that good* but then I really like R. Strauss' stuff. It makes clever references to the past (as usual), both in what's being said and in music and the ending comes off really well. Although the opera finishes before the matter is actually resolved, the very final aria by its very nature gives an answer to the question. Or that's my reading


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

> fans of the overtly dramatic and loud probably won't get it. Even Strauss himself said that it was..... "No work for the public, only a fine dish for connoisseurs"


Love the snobbiness as if Strauss himself didn't write _Elektra. _


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Couchie said:


> Love the snobbiness as if Strauss himself didn't write _Elektra. _


Every girl (and boy) has the right to change their mind. Maybe Strauss did not regret having written the more highly virtuosic and bombast earlier works, but it is not uncommon for an older master to compose some of the most expressive of their works in old age, and to use far reduced forces to that end, having accumulated so much expertise... rather like limiting the palette and getting that much more color out of it than using every color in the box.

Ravel, by practical limitation and perhaps by choice, got remarkable results from a relatively tiny pit orchestra in L'enfant et les sortileges, this composer so used to using a very full orchestra.

So, R. Strauss was proud of the work, and a hair of an elitist


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