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Rapturous Beauty
Richard Strauss's 'Capriccio',
reviewed by MARIA NOCKIN
Stefan Zweig wrote: '... have we not spent happy hours there, looking out from the terrace over the beautiful and peaceful landscape, without suspecting that exactly across from us, on the mountain of Berchtesgaden, sat a man who would one day destroy it all?' -- Die Welt von Gestern ('The World of Yesterday').
The original idea for the libretto of Richard Strauss's last opera, Capriccio, came from Viennese writer Stefan Zweig. When doing research in the British Museum in 1934, he discovered a brief comedy by Giovanni Battista Casti, a rival of Lorenzo da Ponte called Prima la musica e poi le parole ('First the Music and then the words')...
Copyright © 27 April 2011
Maria Nockin,
Arizona USA
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