Richard Strauss: Capriccio
Performed by Renee Fleming (Countess Madeleine), Joseph Kaiser (Flamand), Morten Frank Larsen (Count), Russell Braun (Olivier), Sarah Connolly (Clairon), Peter Rose (La Roche), Olga Makarina, Barry Banks (Italian Singers)
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis
This production from the Metropolitan Opera is really excellent. The setting and costumes are beautifully detailed and realistic. Andrew Davis leads the music in a wonderful performance–from the opening sextet to the Countess’s great closing monologue.
All of the singers are excellent, but Renee Fleming is the obvious star, who is on stage almost throughout and holds the opera together.
As New York Times reviewer Anthony Tommasini writes:
Fleming “grab[s] every chance to let her voice bloom in the fleeting melodic bits.” In the final monologue her voice is “plush and alluring, her phrasing noble.”
The supporting singers are also very good, and funny. Capriccio was Strauss’s last opera–and what a tuneful, touching human story to tell right at the end of his incredible career.
Here is Renée Fleming in an excerpt from Final Scene Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera
And now, please enjoy from R. Strauss’ Capriccio “Kein andres, das mir” as sung by Renee Fleming at the Met 2011.
Tags: Richard Strauss, Renee Fleming, Capriccio, Metropolitan Opera, Sir Andrew Davis