Word: capriccios
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Richard Strauss had finished his Capriccio in 1942. In his 70s, the once-lurid old composer had turned headily intellectual. The basis of his last operatic plot was an argument that had long fascinated him: Which should come first, words or music? With Friend Clemens Krauss, conductor of the Munich Opera, writing the libretto, Strauss had set about transferring the argument to the stage...
...Paris in 1775, Capriccio concerns a poet and a musician, each insistent on his own primary importance. They both court a widowed countess, ask her to make her choice. Her pat decision: she has no right to take either because they belong together...
What the audience saw last week was a far cry from either Salome or Elektra. As one watching expert, Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler, described it, Capriccio is "a musician's opera, composed for the musical gourmet. It has the quality of an old, old sweet wine and contains everything that Strauss knew about music and opera...