Renee Fleming’s Capriccio!
Many of Richard Strauss’ operas are masterpieces and they represent all sorts of challenges for performers. The opera Capriccio is no exception.
Capriccio is the final opera by Richard Strauss, subtitled “A Conversation Piece for Music”. The theme of the opera can be summarized as “Which is more important: words or music?” This question is dramatized in the story of a Countess torn between two suitors: Olivier, a poet, and Flamand, a composer.
The cast in this DVD performance is musically and dramatically excellent, and through their ensemble work the opera ‘Capriccio’ becomes the ‘conversation piece’ that Strauss intended.
The singers are all excellent with outstanding voices, playing well against each other as this ensemble opera demands. Standouts are von Otter, a superb musician in top form, as an elegant, decadent, slightly wacky Clarion; Hawlata, as LaRoche, authoritative, as he should be; Reiner Tröst, one of the most lyric tenor voices around, bringing much poetry and ardor to the role of Flammand, the musician. Renée Fleming is in glorious voice and in amazing costumes in this piece.
Here is Richard Strauss’ Capriccio, the Final Scene:
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Tags: Renée Fleming, Capriccio, Richard Strauss