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Capriccio
"...Gerald Finley, also in a house debut, hardly could have been better as the dilettant Count..." Opera News
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Composer |
Richard Strauss |
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Librettist |
Clemens Krauss |
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Venue and Dates |
Lyric Opera of Chicago 12, 15, 19, 22, 27, 30 November, 2, 5 December 1994 |
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Conductor |
Andrew Davis |
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Production |
Original Producer: John Cox Set Designer: Mauro Pagano
Costume Designer: Martin Battersby Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Choreographer: Val Caniparoli
Ballet Director: Maria Tallchief
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Performers |
Flamand : Kurt Streit Olivier: Rodney Gilfry La Roche: Jan-Hendrik Rootering Count: Gerald Finley Countess: Felicity Lott Clairon: Emily Golden Italian singers: Bonaventura Bottone, Cynthia Lawrence Major Domo: Dale Travis Monsieur Taupe: Richard Markley
Servants: Victor Benedetti, Joseph Fosselman, Gary Martin, Stephen Morscheck, Brian Nedvin, Eric Perkins, Stephen Powell, William Watson
Solo Dancers: William Baierbach, Meredith Benson, Juditka Hoenig (Nov 19, Dec 2), Mario de la Nuez (Nov 19, Dec 2
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Notes |
Gerry's house debut
Production co-owned by the San Francisco Opera Association and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Costumes owned by the Glyndebourne Festival |
What the critics say
John Von Rhein, Opera News, 18 March 1995
Lyric Opera of Chicago's premiere of Capriccio on November 12 proved that a connoisseur's opera also can be popular. The John Cox production dates back to 1973 Glyndebourne, from which also originate Mauro Pagano's unit set, a spacious salon tastefully decorated in 1920s rococo, and period costumes by Martin Battersby. The director's central innovation was to relocate the opera from the 1770s to 1920s Paris, a plausible conceit that made the Countess a Princesse de Polignac type of patroness, La Roche (Jan-Hendrik Rootering) a Diaghilev-style impresario. Cox combined the various strands of vocal conversation masterfully.
Andrew Davis played this exquisite score as if it were Mozart, drawing from the Lyric orchestra a performance that was luminous, richly colored and finely phrased. Felicity Lott's Countess was a creature of infinite fascination, at once charming, intelligent and slightly remote. The British soprano traced the soaring vocal lines beautifully, not least in the final soliloquy, which she conveyed with glowing sound and emotional intimacy.
As her suitors, the adoring puppy Flamand and passionate Olivier, tenor Kurt Streit and baritone Rodney Gilfry made strong local debuts. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley, also in a house debut, hardly could have been better as the dilettant Count, a tweedy twit right out of Noël Coward. As the Count's latest conquest, the actress Clairon, Emily Golden exuded histrionic hauteur, a bit out of synch with the others. The only German in the cast, Rootering delivered the impresario's defense of the theater with moving eloquence. Cynthia Lawrence and Bonaventura Bottone came close to upstaging everyone in their hilarious cameos as the Italian singers. One demerit to Lyric for interrupting the action to insert an intermission that Strauss never intended. In all other respects, however, this Capriccio was a triumph.