We all need a bit of light-hearted comedy and a happy ending, and this week’s Sunday Opera (3/24 3:00 P.M.) will give you both with a live recording of Richard Strauss’ 1933 opera “Arabella” which he set to a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.
This recording comes from 1958, and although the sound seems a bit dated, the cast features some of the finest voices of the day which are all too often overlooked today.
Arabella (Lisa Della Casa) has a problem. Her father, Count Waldner (Otto Edelmann) wants her to marry, but not one of the three suitors she’s currently entertaining. They are Count Elemer (Helmut Melchert), Count Dominik (Georg Stern), and Count Lamoral (Karl Weber). Arabella seems to know who she wants until she sees a stranger on the street and falls immediately in love.
The stranger turns out to be Mandryka (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) who is the nephew of the man to whom Waldner wrote in the hopes to get money. Waldner included a portrait of Arabella, and Mandryka immediately fell in love with her, and as the only heir to his uncle’s fortune, Mandryka is happy to help Waldner out, especially if there’s a chance of knowing Arabella better.
The complication comes in the form of Arabella’s sister Zdenka (Anneliese Rothenberger) who is disguised as a man called Zdenko who is friends with a poor officer named Matteo (Kurt Ruesche) who is in love with Arabella and thinks he’s been corresponding with her but has really been corresponding with Zdenka who writes to him as Arabella because she is really in love with him.
Of course, everything must get confusing and tense before it works out to a happy ending with Arabella following the custom of Mandryka’s country and offering the man she intends to marry a glass of water.
The Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra are conducted by Joseph Keliberth.
We’ll complete our time together with one of Struass’ lesser-known and performed work, the ballet “Joseph’s Legende.” The ballet follows a modified version of Joseph (of the coat of many colors fame) and his time in the house of Potiphar. The complete score is performed here by the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli.
