Strauss, Richard

Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier / Te Kanawa, Howells, Haugland, Bonney, Solti, Schlesinger (The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden)

This Rosenkavalier is a nearly perfect combination of music, singers, staging, and conducting. It examines the whole spectrum of love from every perspective: youthful idealism, consenting adultery, predatory lechery, and autumnal regrets. Richard Strauss's music is exquisite; the emotional climate includes tenderness, sophistication, and sentimentality, with a healthy dose of near-slapstick. This is a treatment to live with on a desert island.

Kiri Te Kanawa garners most of the acclaim in what is probably her best role, but the entire cast is superbly chosen and works together in fine-tuned ensemble--not only the impulsive Octavian of Anne Howells, Barbara Bonney's sweet, timid Sophie, and Aage Haugland's, boorish, pretentious Baron Ochs, but everyone, including servants, domestic spies, and the social-climbing Herr Faninal. The sets and costumes are sumptuous; the sound and video images well defined. Georg Solti conducts with a subtlety and lyric lilt not always found in his work. --Joe McLellan

This opulent Royal Opera production by Oscar-winning film director John Schlessinger stars Kiri Te Kanawa in what "deserves to be ranked…among her finest achievements".(Financial Times).Also stars Anne Howells, Aage Haugland, and Barbara Bonney. Conducted by George Solti. Color, 197 minutes. Subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese.

Richard Strauss - Intermezzo / Felicity Lott, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Richard Strauss' Intermezzo is an autobiographical piece; a domestic comedy of marital strife. Set in the 1920s, John Cox's stylish production stars Felicity Lott as the volatile Christine Storch (alias Pauline Strauss), who has an innocent fling with a penniless young baron (Ian Caley) and then comes to suspect her husband Robert (John Pringle) of carrying on an illicit affair...with ensuing complications. Andrew Porter's brilliant English translation brings out the sharp wit of this piece and gives Felicity Lott's virtuoso talent full rein both musically and theatrically. Martin Battersby's marvellous art nouveau settings evoke perfectly the luxurious lifestyle of Strauss' Vienna. The London Philharmonic, in sparkling form, is conducted by Gustav Kuhn.

'Felicity Lott's performance is a triumph.' THE TIMES

Director: JOHN COX
Choreographer: MONIQUE WAGEMAKERS
Designer: MARTIN BATTERSBY
Theatre Lighting: ROBERT BRYAN
Directed for video by DAVID BUCKTON

Christine: FELICITY LOTT
Robert Storch: JOHN PRINGLE
Baron Lummer: IAN CALEY
Anna: ELIZABETH GALE

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: GUSTAV KUHN

Richard Strauss - Arabella / Thielemann, Te Kanawa, Brendel, Metropolitan Opera

Criticizing Richard Strauss for composing melodically enduring operas is as pointless as lambasting Vermeer for painting only exquisite interior scenes. Those who say Strauss never improved on Rosenkavalier may be right, but when such beguiling sounds kept coming from his music for the next 30 years of his life, there shouldn't be any quibbles.

Arabella follows a woman who cannot make up her mind on a suitor and, like most Strauss operas, ends with a meltingly lovely duet. Taped at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1994 under the baton of conductor Christian Thielemann, this production features Kiri Te Kanawa in the title role; her acting is mediocre, but vocally she never forces anything and at least sounds like the perfect Arabella. Wolfgang Brendel does well with Mandryka, who finally ends up with Arabella, and Marie McLaughlin as Zdenka makes a sympathetic younger sister to the heroine. Otto Schenk's production is sturdily conservative, the video transfer is acceptable if unspectacular, and the sound mix is CD-quality. --Kevin Filipski

Cast list

Kiri Te Kanawa: Arabella
Wolfgang Brendel: Mandryka
Marie McLaughlin: Zdenka
David Kuebler: Matteo
Helga Dernesch: Adelaide
Donald McIntyre: Count Waldner
Charles Workman: Count Elemer
Kim Josephson: Count Dominik
Julien Robbins: Cound Lamoral
Natalie Dessay: The Fiakermilli
Jane Shaulis: A fortuneteller

Metropolitan Opera and Chorus, Christian Thielemann, conductor

Richard Strauss - Ariadne auf Naxos / Levine, Norman, Battle, Troyanos, Metropolitan Opera

Richard Strauss - Capriccio / Runnicles, Te Kanawa, Hagegard, Troyanos, San Francisco Opera

The last and most subtle of Richard Strauss's operas gets a finely nuanced interpretation in this San Francisco Opera production. A generally excellent cast is highlighted not only by the radiant presence of Kiri Te Kanawa but by the deceptively robust performance of Tatiana Troyanos in her last operatic appearance before her untimely death from cancer.

The composer described Capriccio as a "conversation piece for music in one act," and he put a lot of effort into it, not only the music but the words, on which he collaborated with conductor Clemens Krauss. His verbal input was particularly appropriate in this work, because the real subject (symbolized by a conventional love triangle) is the competition (and alliance) between words and music in opera, a subject naturally close to the composer-librettist's heart. The conversation runs through the whole opera in various forms. It begins immediately after the curtain goes up, with a quarrel between the poet Olivier (Simon Keenlyside) and the composer Flamand (David Kuebler) over the respective merits of their arts. They are rivals for the hand of the widowed Countess Madeleine (Te Kanawa); she is to choose between them (i.e., between poetry and music) but she is still undecided as the final curtain descends. The intervening two hours are rich in artistic shop talk and backstage situations that will enchant sophisticated opera-lovers, as well as the love interest for the rest of us.

David Runnicles conducts with a sure sense of Straussian style; and Mauro Pagano's 18th-century set creates the right atmosphere. Keenlyside and Kuebler are eloquent and believable, Te Kanawa sweet, regal and ambiguous. Håkan Hagegård and Victor Braun give particularly vivid performances in supporting roles. --Joe McLellan

Richard Strauss's last opera, includes some of the composer's most elegant and sumptuous music. The deftly woven vocal ensembles, detailed orchestral writing and light-handed parodies of eighteenth century music show the hand of the master. Stars Kiri Te Kanawa, Hakan Hagegard, Tatiana Troyanos, and Victor Braun.

Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier / Carlos Kleiber, Otto Schenk - Lott, von Otter, Bonney - Wiener Staatsoper

After the tonality-stretching dissonance of Salome and especially Elektra, Richard Strauss moved onto a different musical path with his next opera. The epic grandeur of Der Rosenkavalier stems not just from its immense length (over three hours) but from the all-too-human complexity of its characters--each of whom is smitten with someone else--and the endless stream of graceful melodies the composer conjures. The music's sheer gorgeousness has given this most heartbreaking of 20th century operas its pride of place in the repertory.

For this 1994 performance at the Vienna Opera House, conductor Carlos Kleiber leads a committed reading of the buoyant score that savors every note. The three leads are superb singer-actresses who get full marks for embodying Strauss's most richly romantic creations: Felicity Lott (the Marschallin), Anne Sophie von Otter (Octavian), and Barbara Bonney (Sophie) also offer a truly entrancing final trio, one of the great scenes in all opera. The stereo sound mix is solid, as is the video transfer. --Kevin Filipski

Cast list:

Felicity Lott: Marschallin
Kurt Moll: Der Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau
Anne Sofie von Otter: Octavian
Gottfried Hornik: Herr von Faninal
Barbara Bonney: Sophie
Olivera Miljakovic: Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin
Heinz Zednik: Valzacchi
Anna Gonda: Annina
Keith Ikaia-Purdy: Ein Sänger
Lotte Leitner: Eine Modistin

Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, conductor. Based on a stage production by Otto Schenk

New Year's Eve Concert 1992 - Richard Strauss Gala / Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic, Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, Renee Fleming

A 1992 New Year's Eve Concert recorded at the Philharmonie in Berlin, celebrating the works of Richard Strauss. Claudio Abbado conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Don Juan
tone poem for orchestra with Toru Yasunaga

Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks)
tone poem for orchestra

Burleske for piano and orchestra
with Martha Argerich

Der Rosenkavalier
Trio and Finale (Act III)
with Kathleen Battle, Renée Fleming, Andreas Schmidt, Frederica Von Stade

Richard Strauss - Salome / Peter Hall · Edward Downes · Maria Ewing, · ROH Covent Garden

While not everyone's idea of a proper opera singer, there's no denying soprano Maria Ewing's artistry as a performer, which is why her portrayal of Strauss's (and, from the original play, Oscar Wilde's) heroine in this 1992 staging is so riveting to watch. Her intensity, often misdirected in other portrayals, is focused on the teenage temptress she's playing, and she even performs a credibly sexy dance of the seven veils. Her then-husband, director Sir Peter Hall, makes sure that the audience sees his wife in the altogether at its conclusion (admittedly something not too many opera singers could pull off).

Otherwise, Sir Peter's production is properly strange, making viewers squirm while watching so many abhorrent people onstage. Michael Devlin is in strong voice as John the Baptist, and Kenneth Riegel makes Tetrarch the heinous devil he surely is. Edward Downes and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House bring out every thrilling aspect of the young Strauss's still-disturbing score. --Kevin Filipski

Richard Strauss - Die Frau Ohne Schatten

Schwarzkopf, Seefried & Fischer-Dieskau Sing Mahler, Richard Strauss & Schubert (EMI Classic Archive 21)

For complete enjoyment of an operatic scene or lieder recital, the visual element is almost as important as what you hear; the singer's facial expressions and body language are an essential part of the performance. This disc, compiled from television broadcasts in 1959 and the 1960s, supplies, delightfully, the visual element unfortunately missing in audio recordings of three of the greatest German singers of the 20th century.

Everything on this disc is a treasure. Schwartzkopf is shown in the heart-breaking end of Act I in Der Rosenkavalier; it does not surpass her complete recording of the role with Von Karajan (available on VHS), but complements it with another view of one of her great moments. Seefried is totally charming, with vivid facial expressions and silvery tone, in five songs of Richard Strauss and three of Gustav Mahler. And Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is in his vocal prime for Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer. A very substantial bonus presents Fischer-Dieskau and pianist Gewrald Moore in four songs of Schubert, including a bone-chilling "Der Erlkönig" that requires the singer to use three contrasting voices. --Joe McLellan