Tenor Burden and baritone Iversen play the composer and the poet, respectively. A theater director knows best that “the show must go on”-Rose had the courage to do what La Roche would do. I felt that, if anything, his condition enhanced the role rather than diminished it. Rose delivers a paramount performance, singing despite a throat infection on opening night. In it, he defends the sanctity of the theater and exalts its creation of a higher reality. Yet La Roche departs from his trope in a stirring monologue two-thirds through the opera. He’s a colossal busybody replete with unsolicited advice, playing the basso buffo, or comic bass. I consider the second most important character to be La Roche (Peter Rose), the lovable theater director. Her melody soars over turbulent orchestration. Decorum gives way to passion in the immortal final scene as the Countess questions her indecision. Onstage, Fleming plays the Countess with consummate dignity. And her voice! It’s simply a force of nature, sweeter than a 4.0 and richer than the Hamptons. Fleming is one of the greatest divas on the planet, pairing ravishing beauty with the rare operatic ability to bring characters to life, this time playing the woman at the center of this terribly academic love triangle. If you watched the Super Bowl last year, you probably remember Renée Fleming (Countess Madeleine) singing the national anthem. Yet rather than distracting from a unified timeframe, these occasional Art Deco elements dress down the scene and relax the atmosphere. But look closer and the set loses its historical homogeneity: a wide, sloping lampshade, smooth crystal tumblers, the swirly couch. At first glance, Madeleine’s drawing room screams Louis XIV–style excess, complete with florid scrollwork and a mural of the muses. It melds Rococo with Art Deco, creating a refined and seamless aesthetic. The grand mystery is never resolved.ĭirector Peter McClintock’s revival production looks nothing short of spectacular.
Thing is, we never really find out-Richard Strauss pioneered maddening endings before Christopher Nolan ever made Inception. If she picks the composer, music is more important. If she picks the poet, words are more important. The answer, too, seems straightforward enough.
Courted by two lovers, the Countess Madeleine (Fleming) faces a difficult decision: who will she favor, the poet Olivier (Audun Iversen) or the composer Flamand (William Burden)? Of course, the whole shtick is an elaborate allegory for the importance of words versus music in opera. It stars Renée Fleming, offers gorgeous singing, and presents sets featuring the Queen of Divas (shuffle over, Beyoncé).Ĭapriccio is a sort of witty, happy, operatic Sophie’s Choice. The work takes some getting used to, but the current Lyric production is to die for. His Capriccio is a meta-opera: an opera about opera. Richard Strauss knew a thing or two about theory and practice.
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