Opera Review: Old Money, New Voices

The Met revives Richard Strauss' nostalgic Arabella.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Half empty, or half full? Malin Byström in Arabella.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

Richard Strauss' Arabella is a girl with a bad reputation.

This is the last of the composer's collaborations with his favorite librettist Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. Arabella was planned to be a second raid on the mix of romantic comedy and Viennese nostalgia that made Der Rosenkavalier the duo's biggest success. Hoffmansthal died leaving only Act I as a finished work. (Strauss worked from his drafts of the second and third acts.) When Arabella premiered (in 1934) the Great Depression was still on. The Nazis were in power. The opera, a sentimental love story set around a grand evening out in Vienna, was destined to join the ranks of Strauss' lesser stage works.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Arabella

A rare revival of Strauss' elegant comedy.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ready for her close-up: Malyn Byckström in the title role of Arabella.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera has not revived Richard Strauss' Arabella since 2001. As the classical music world celebrates the composer's 150th birthday, this handsome Otto Schenk production returns under the baton of Washington National Opera music director Philippe Auguin.