[Nov. 14, 2010] 15 (well, actually 16) ways to start an opera, courtesy of Richard Strauss (continued)

Time magazine, July 25, 1938. Strauss had already
appeared on the cover of Time once before, in 1927.

by Ken

And so, without further ado (okay, maybe some small bitlets of ado), here are the openings of all 15 Strauss operas.

Guntram, Op. 25 (1894, rev. 1940)

When Strauss conducted the premiere of his first opera, set to his own murky-medieval libretto, he was a month and a day shy of his 30th birthday but was already established as the composer of the tone poems Aus Italien, Don Juan, Macbeth, and Death and Transfiguration, not to mention dozens of songs and assorted other compositions, and well enough established as a conductor to be able to have his opera staged in Weimar. It failed, but he believed in it enough to undertake a revision in the '30s. As I noted Friday night, it seems to me that this lovely Overture might be enjoyable to hear occasionally on concert programs.

Overture
Hungarian State Orchestra, Eve Queler, cond. CBS/Hungaroton, recorded c1983

Feuersnot, Op. 50 (1901)

I also noted Friday night that Feuersnot (which would translate as something like Need for Fire) gets off to an agreeably perky start. Thereafter, however, my interest in this psychosexually odd tale of life and love in medieval Munich loses my interest. It has roles of some interest for the soprano and baritone, and does get revived periodically -- I see I've got four LP and two CD performances recordings.

Orchestral introduction
Munich Radio Orchestra, Heinz Fricke, cond. Acanta, recorded c1983

Salome, Op. 54 (1905)

We're not stopping at the first voice because that would leave us with little music but that upward clarinet rush. Strauss immediately envelops us in his riveting musical renderings of the assorted obsessions of the opera's characters, starting with the Syrian captain Narraboth's fixation on the beauty of the princess Salome (in counterpoint with the Page's fixation on Narraboth) and leading us, by the end of the clip, to the alternative fixation offered by John the Baptist from the cistern in which he's imprisoned, a mysterious Redeemer of the World.

Opening scene: Narraboth, the Page, Soldiers, Jochanaan
James King (t), Narraboth; Julia Hamari (ms), Page of Herodias; Neil Howlett (b) and David Kelly (bs), Soldiers; Sherrill Milnes (b), Jochanaan; London Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded June 1968

Elektra, Op. 58 (1909)

Salome and Elektra have always been linked as musicodramatic "shockers," but the kinds of obsession they portray are quite different. Here too, though, Strauss working for the first time with Hugo von Hofmannsthal as librettist, plunges us into his sound world, with the thundered motif of the murdered king Agamemnon, leading right into the scene gossiping of the widow Klytämnestra's servants' gossiping -- harshly, except in the case of the 5th Maid, not yet heard in our clip -- about the barely human presence of Agamemnon and Klytämnestra's daughter Elektra.

Opening scene: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Maids
Jocelyne Taillon (ms), 1st Maid; Anna Ringart (ms), 2nd Maid; Francine Arranzeau (s), 3rd Maid; Hélène Garetti (s), 4th Maid; Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Apr. 21, 1973

Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose),
Op. 59 (1911)

How could we not have talked a fair amount about Rosenkavalier (most recently here)? There's not much question about what the opera's tumultuous, then post-climactic, opening has depicted when the curtain rises on the Feldmarschallin Marie Therese (the princess of Werdenberg) and her young lover Octavian (Count Rofrano). Last night we heard Georg Solti's really rousing rendering; I really love Leonard Bernstein's audaciously broader one with the same orchestra.

Act I: Orchestral introduction
Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. CBS/Sony, recorded 1971

Ariadne auf Naxos, Op. 60 (1912, rev. version 1916)

I don't think we've had much occasion to talk about Ariadne, which is a lot of people's, apparently including the composer's, favorite Strauss opera. The mock seriousness of what became an opera-within-the-opera is beautifully reflected in its Overture. The orchestral introduction to the Prologue added in the revision of the opera really captures the mix of mythological tragedy and commedia dell'arte-style goofiness. Note that the Ariadne "orchestra" is actually a chamber orchestra.

Prologue: Orchestral introduction
Overture to the opera-within-an-opera
Staatskapelle Dresden, Giuseppe Sinopoli, cond. Teldec, recorded Sept. and Dec. 2000

Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow),
Op. 65 (1919)

Luckily we've already devoted a fair amount of attention to Frau (most recently here), because this mammoth, complex opera has only a brief orchestral stage-setting for the 12th and final monthly visitation by a messenger from the spirit god Keikobad (whose name is announced in the opening motif much as Agamemnon's was in Elektra) to the scheming Nurse charged with watching over Keikobad's cherished daughter, who defied her darling daddy by marrying a mortal (a mere emperor!).

Act I: Orchestral introduction
Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, Oct. 23 and 27, 1977

Intermezzo, Op. 72 (1924)

Unable to find a suitable librettist for this contemporary tale of marital crisis, Strauss for the first time since Guntram wrote his own libretto. He places us straightaway in the bickering world of the powerful music director Robert Storch and his wife Christine as they prepare for the Hofkapellmeister's imminent departure for the city to begin his new season. While in general the text and its setting are highly conversational, for the scene interludes Strauss provided some lovely music.

Act I: Opening dialogue, Christine and Robert Storch
Lucia Popp (s), Christine Storch; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Hofkapellmeister Robert Storch; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. EMI, recorded January 1980

Die ägyptische Helena (The Egyptian Helen), Op. 75
(1928, rev. 1933)

Sometimes you really have to "tune in to the frequency" of a work. It took me a long time, but now that I've "tuned in" to Ägyptische Helena, its power seems obvious from the outset, and I'm only sorry to cut off just as we're about to be introduced to one of Strauss's tenderest creations, the enchantress Aithra, suffering the torments of what she regards as abandonment by her beloved, the sea god Poseidon.

Act I: Orchestral introduction
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati, cond. Decca, recorded May 1979

Arabella, Op. 79 (1933)

We're back in the world of the Viennese nobility, but now from the viewpoint of the impoverished Count Waldner. The count and countess's one hope of righting their finances is a good match for their beautiful older daughter, Arabella. At curtain rise Countess Adelaide is in urgent consultation with her fortune-teller. Arabella has its moments, notably the lovely Act I duet of sisters Arabella and Zdenka Waldner, but they're not enough to save the opera for me. Since this is another case where we can't avoid going beyond the strictly orchestral introduction, I thought it might be well to hear a performance in English.

Act I opening: Fortune Teller, Countess Adelaide, Zdenka
[in English] Thelma Votipka (ms), Fortune Teller; Blanche Thebom (ms), Countess Adelaide; Hilde Gueden (s), Zdenka Waldner; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Rudolf Kempe, cond. Live performance, Feb. 26, 1955

Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman), Op. 80 (1935)

I confess I've never made a huge effort to get inside Strauss's operatic adaptation of Ben Jonson's Epicoene, or The Silent Woman -- of a genre with Jonson's Volpone and its operatic kind, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, portraying the mortifying of a foolish old man who takes a young wife. It has never seemed to me to offer great musicodramatic reward, but then for a long time Ägyptische Helena didn't either.

Prelude
Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. EMI, recorded c1978

Friedenstag (Day of Peace), Op. 81 (1938)

The libretto of Friedenstag, which celebrates the reconciliation of once-mortal enemies, took shape under the tortuous conditions of 1930s Germany. For all its noble sentiments, it doesn't seem to have much engaged Strauss's dramatic instincts.

Orchestral introduction
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. EMI, recorded live, July 22, 1988

Daphne, Op. 82 (1938)

Life is tough; by the time the nymph Daphne is turned into a laurel tree (one of the great operatic final scenes), it's a lucky break. Strauss poured such compassion into these pastoral characters of Daphne -- our opening music introduces a lovely shepherds' scene -- that it has the makings of magic.

Orchestral introduction
WDR (West German Radio) Symphony Orchestra (Cologne), Semyon Bychkov, cond. Decca, recorded Feb. 28-Mar. 12, 2005

Die Liebe der Danae (The Loves of Danae), Op. 83 (1940)

One last time Strauss went to the ancient-Greek well for an operatic subject. One time too many? We've got only about 14 seconds of orchestra-only introduction. Feel free to explore further on your own -- there are now several recordings out there.

Act I: Orchestral opening
American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, cond. Telarc, live concert performance, Jan. 16, 2000

Capriccio, Op. 85 (1942)

We first heard the Introduction, which as I've suggested still seems to me mostly note-spinning, and the haunting "Moonlight Interlude" from Capriccio in our February "Glimpses of the musical depths of Richard Strauss." It's an intriguing idea to personify the operatic tug of war between words and music in operatic characters, but can it work when the characters are such cardboard creations?

Introduction (Sextet)
Vienna Philharmonic, André Previn, cond. DG, recorded October 1992


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