Capriccio: a conversation piece for music

by Richard Strauss, Clemens Krauss

English libretto for Capriccio, Op. 85, the final opera by German composer Richard Strauss, subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music". Clemens Krauss and Strauss wrote the German libretto. The theme of the opera can be summarized as "Which is the greater art, poetry or music?" This question is dramatized in the story of a Countess torn between two suitors: Olivier, a poet, and Flamand, a composer.

Paperback

First published October 28, 1942

About the author

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer and conductor best known for his tone poems and operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Along with Gustav Mahler, he represents the late flowering of German Romanticism, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.

Reviews

[Two Readers in Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading libretto in preparation for seeing the Met Opera's pandemic free HD live stream: "Soprano Renée Fleming stars as Countess Madeleine, a woman torn between her love for a composer and a poet, in a sublime [April 23rd] 2011 Live in HD transmission of Capriccio. Strauss’s final opera also features tenor Joseph Kaiser and baritone Russell Braun as her suitors Flamand and Olivier, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly as Clairon, bass-baritone Morten Frank Larsen as the Count, and bass Peter Rose as La Roche. Andrew Davis conducts John Cox’s sumptuous staging, available tonight, March 30."