The MusicWeb Message Board: Re: Richard Strauss' later operas

I suppose dumping on Richard Strauss' post Der Rosenkavalier operas is a pasttime too much enjoyed to be able to fight against. I think that Ariadne Auf Naxos (in two versions no less) is the greatest opera of the 20th C and incredibly original. Intermezzo is also a very original opera both compositionally and in subject matter.

The main problem I see in some of the post Ariadne operas is an inability to give up the massive orchestra which stresses singers and just doesn't sound as convincing as it did in the 19th C. Frau Ohne Schatten would have been better with an Ariadne sized orchestra. Even the more musically original Die Aegyptische Helena would benefit from a scaled down orchestra. Another blind spot of Strauss is that if he couldn't get V Hofmannsthal librettos then Strauss himself was the next best librettist. The relative failures are the operas where he used neither.

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Thank you for your response and kind words, Stephen; I have to agree with you that for all I enjoy Strauss' later operas, the three late works you cite are superior to al of them. I am currently working on a survey of those late operas; maybe it will give you a jog to try one or two of them again in what I hope are the best recordings.

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I greatly respect Ralph Moore's expertise on operas and regret that I do not enjoy Strauss's later operas more than I do. I have admired Salome and Elektra since my teens. I am always willing to give the later ones a chance, but have so far been disappointed. Of course the really late concert works, such as Metamorphosen, the oboe concerto and the Four Last Songs are as good as anything he wrote.

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As a Strauss opera devotee and the producer of surveys of all of his major operas, you will understand that I became increasingly slack-jawed as I read my colleague Stephen Barber's verdict on the later works and the Naxos Arabella DVD he has just reviewed. He writes, " I care neither for the story nor the music of Der Rosenkavalier , think Ariadne auf Naxos charming but silly, Intermezzo a Zeitoper which has become very much a period piece and Capriccio , apart from the lovely Prelude, rather repetitive and sentimental."

Arabella is then condemned as "a disappointing work", suffering from a libretto which was not one of Hofmannsthal's better efforts, Arabella herself as "a cipher", the male roles unattractive and the music as fluent but unmemorable, containing too many longueurs with an over-protracted denouement. Phew!

SB is of course wholly entitled to express such opinions, and like him I certainly have my dislikes and even lacunae - I can, for example, rarely tolerate Liszt in any form - but as a result, I tend to avoid reviewing anything for which I have as great an antipathy as he demonstrates towards that work.

I am sure he is quite right about the failings of the performance itself and I am equally sure that his recommendation of Janowitz and Solti is sound, but I rarely watch opera DVDs myself; it is not a medium I much enjoy, preferring either the audio or a live performance. However, I would still like to put in a word for a work which I love; several of the duets are among the finest Strauss ever wrote. For my own views and recommendations, I refer you to the aforementioned survey.