Libretto.pdf

Capriccio

A CONVERSATION PIECE

FOR MUSIC

Libretto by Clemens Krauss and Richard Strauss

Music by Richard Strauss

First Performance October 28, 1942, National Theatre, Munich

Synopsis and English Libretto

for Pacific Opera Victoria’s

Production of Capriccio

February 25, March 2, 4, 6, 2010, 8 pm

February 27, 3 pm

Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC

English Libretto based on Surtitle Text created for POV by Teresa Turgeon

Pacific Opera Victoria, 500 – 1815 Blanshard Street, Victoria, BC V8T 5A4

Phone: 250.382.1641 Box Office: 250.385.0222 www.pov.bc.ca

CAPRICCIO: A CONVERSATION PIECE FOR MUSIC

by Clemens Krauss and Richard Strauss

Music by Richard Strauss

Strauss originally set Capriccio in a luxurious chateau near Paris at the time when Gluck began his reform of opera,

about 1775. Marie Antoinette had just become Queen of France; the French Revolution was yet to come.

Pacific Opera Victoria’s production is set in the elegant 18th century family home of the Count and Countess, but in the

late 1930s – the time in which the opera was written.

Synopsis

and of Rameau – superb, but spoiled for her by the bad

manners of the man (meanwhile the orchestra quotes

snippets from these composers). The Count tells her she

needs to distinguish the man from his music and suggests

that her response to Flamand’s composition is coloured by

her attraction to him. She counters that his praise for

Olivier’s play has a lot to do with his interest in the actress

Clairon.

The Count then points out that Madeleine has two admirers

and asks which she will choose. Perhaps neither , she

responds, for choosing either means I must lose one .

Scene 1

The Count and his sister, the Countess Madeleine, are

hosting a house party at which a group of artists will

rehearse the entertainment for the Countess’s approaching

birthday. As the opera opens, the Countess is listening

raptly to a charming string sextet by the composer

Flamand, while the theatre director La Roche sleeps.

Flamand and the poet Olivier watch the Countess intently

and adoringly – and quickly realize that they are both in

love with her. They agree they are friendly rivals in both

love and art – words against music.

La Roche wakes up, observing contentedly that he sleeps

best to gentle music. Flamand and Olivier are irritated that

their destiny lies in such hands as his, but La Roche

counters that without his staging, their works are nothing

but paper. The discussion turns to the operas of Gluck,

whom Flamand and Olivier admire, but La Roche holds

forth on the merits of the Italian composer Piccinni.

(The score here quotes the overture from Gluck’s Iphigénie

en Aulide , whose 1774 premiere sparked often violent

conflict between “Gluckists” and “Piccinnists”. Gluck

wanted to restore the balance of music and words in opera,

making the drama of the work more important than the

virtuoso singers who dominated Italian opera with their

extravagant ornamentation and brilliant embellishments.)

La Roche complains that Gluck’s orchestra drowns out the

singers – he hankers for the good old days of Italian opera.

While Flamand and Olivier scorn the idea of catering to

the masses, La Roche calls for human characters that will

appeal to the man in the street – a musical comedy,

beautiful arias, lots of spectacle, pretty girls. Talk turns to

the charming actress Clairon, an old flame of Olivier’s.

Noticing that the Countess is still under the spell of

Flamand’s music, La Roche adds that it’s a pity he slept

through it himself. All three speak admiringly of her

beauty and charm. And a widow adds La Roche

meaningfully, before whisking them off to get ready to

rehearse Olivier’s new play.

Scene 3

The others return, and La Roche reviews the programme

for the birthday celebrations: Flamand’s piece, followed by

Olivier’s play, in which the Count and Clairon will act the

parts of the lovers, and finally, a spectacular production by

La Roche’s company, featuring fantastic tableaux, a

magnificent ballet, and singers with astonishing voices and

high trills, performing real Italian opera. But La Roche

refuses to reveal any more details.

Scene 4

The famous actress Clairon arrives, and everyone is

aflutter with admiration. Clairon and the Count read a love

scene from Olivier's play. Unaccompanied by the

orchestra, their dialogue is entirely words – pure poetry,

with no music. It culminates in a love sonnet ( Kein Andres,

das mir so im Herzen loht ). Clairon compliments the Count

on his reading of the lines, and off they go to the small

theatre in the next room to work with La Roche on staging

the play. La Roche forbids Olivier to attend the rehearsal,

telling him to trust in the director’s genius.

Olivier tells the Countess that the Count’s reading of the

love sonnet was addressed to the wrong person. He then

recites the verses directly and passionately to her. As he is

speaking, Flamand begins to improvise a little melody on

the harpsichord and then, inspired, rushes off to set the

words to music.

Scene 5

When the horrified Olivier tries to stop Flamand from

meddling with his precious verse, the Countess tells him to

wait and see. She then teases him, asking if he has no prose

Scene 2

The Count and Countess enter. Unlike her brother,

Madeleine has been carried away by Flamand’s music. She

comments on the music of Couperin – pretty but shallow –

Pacific Opera Victoria Capriccio : Synopsis and Libretto

to deliver now that the two of them are alone. He expresses

his ardent devotion, but she has half an eye on Flamand

who is happily spinning poetry into song. Olivier entreats

her to choose between music and poetry and crown the

victor, just as Flamand rushes in, flourishing the completed

manuscript.

eloquence in silence that is stronger than words and more

persuasive.

Madeleine asks why Flamand, a musician, is resorting to

words. He retorts that his music does not yet seem to have

touched her heart. She finally agrees to give him her

answer the next morning at eleven, in the library where he

first found love; overcome with excitement, he rushes off.

The Countess contemplates her dilemma. As the rehearsal

in the next room winds up, she calls the major-domo to

serve chocolate.

Scene 6

Flamand sings the sonnet to his own harpsichord

accompaniment.

Nothing else flames so in my heart,

no, Lady, nothing is there on earth’s whole face,

nothing else that I could sigh for as for you,

in vain would Venus herself come down to grant my will.

What joy, what pain your gentle eye bestows;

and if a glance should heighten all that pain…

the next restore my fondest hope and bliss entire;

two glances signify then life … or death.

And, though I lived five hundred thousand years,

save you, miraculous fair, there could not be

another creature hold sway over me.

Through fresh veins I must needs let flow my blood;

my own with you are filled to overflowing

and new love then could find not room nor pause.

The Countess is deeply moved; she feels that the music

and the words seem always to have been waiting for one

another; the two together transcend either alone.

Meanwhile Olivier mutters furiously that Flamand has

stolen his poem: The rhymes destroyed, the sentences

dismembered…Who can hear the slightest sense in the

text? … This lucky man climbs my words like a ladder to

victory! … Is it now his poem, or still my own?

The Countess declares that the sonnet now belongs to her,

and Flamand agrees enthusiastically. The Countess tells

the sulking poet, No matter how you may resent it, dear

friend, you are both inseparably united in this sonnet of

mine!

Things are not about to get any better for the poet, for now

La Roche comes to discuss some brilliant cuts he intends

to make to Olivier’s play. Joking about the proposed

amputation, the two depart, leaving Flamand alone with

the Countess.

Scene 8

The Count enters, exuberantly reporting on Clairon’s

charm and revelling in her praise for his acting. Madeleine

warns him that he has been captivated by the actress’s

flattery. She then tells her brother that both the poet and

the musician have declared their love for her. The Count

tells her that in a choice between words and music, he’d

stay with the words.

Scene 9

The others enter, and Clairon graciously praises the

Count’s spirit and compliments him on his

imperturbability: Our prompter had fallen asleep… and

the Count went on reading with bravura, not even once

forgetting a line.

As they all savour their chocolate, La Roche brings in a

pair of dancers to perform three short dances – a

Passepied, a Gigue, and a Gavotte – in the style of

Couperin and Rameau.

During the Passepied, La Roche chats with the Count,

expounding on the beauty and grace of the young ballerina,

his newest discovery, whom he is grooming for a great

future, both on stage and off.

As the Gigue begins, Olivier approaches Clairon, but she is

interested in neither his flattery nor his attempts to make

peace; it is clear they had a love affair that ended badly. As

Clairon walks away from the poet, the observant La Roche

notes that Olivier is unlikely to play an impressive role in

her memoirs (the real-life Hyppolyte Clairon, a leading

actress-courtesan of the Comédie Française did indeed

publish her memoirs in 1799).

Only for the Gavotte do the dancers have the attention of

the entire company. They finish amid general applause and

fulsome compliments from the Count: Your performance

charmed and delighted me. Just as our thoughts free the

mind from the body and lift us into a higher world, so does

dance overcome the force of gravity. The body seems to

hover, accompanied by moving music.

The Count then points out to Flamand that here his music

is merely a delicious accompaniment. Flamand defends his

art vigourously: If it were not for Music, no one on earth

would ever dream of moving a muscle. Olivier chimes in,

saying that music and dance are constrained by rhythm and

that only poetry offers true freedom and clarity of thought.

Scene 7

Now it is Flamand’s turn to declare his fervent love to

Madeleine and ask her to make a choice. She vacillates:

Everything is such a tangle – Words are singing, music

speaks!

Flamand tenderly recalls how he first came to love

Madeleine one afternoon in her library when she, unaware

of his presence, read for a while as he watched, enchanted.

As dusk fell, she left, and he picked up the volume she had

left open and in the twilight read the lines by Pascal: In

Love, silence is better than speech. There is something of

Pacific Opera Victoria Capriccio : Synopsis and Libretto

Flamand insists that music is replete with meaning – In a

single chord you experience a world!

La Roche weighs in on behalf of theatre as the supreme art.

The Countess agrees: The theatre unveils for us the secrets

of reality. In its magic mirror we discover ourselves.

The debate continues.

Olivier: Poetry is the mother of all arts.

Flamand: Music is the root from which everything springs

… The cry of pain preceded language.

Olivier: The real depth of the Tragic can only be expressed

when a poet puts it into words.

The Countess reminds them that it is possible to create a

musical tragedy, at which the Count suddenly cries, Stop!

One more step and we stand before the abyss! We’re

already face to face with an opera!

Olivier complains that composers and poets obstruct one

another dreadfully and waste untold effort in bringing an

opera into the world. The Count adds, An opera is an

absurd thing. Orders are sung; affairs of state are

discussed in duets; people dance on graves and suicide

takes place melodically.

Clairon chimes in that she wouldn’t mind people dying

with an aria on their lips, except that she finds the words so

much worse than the music. The Countess brings forward

Gluck as an example of someone who makes the words

and the music equal. At this, the Count launches into a

complaint about the unspeakable boredom of recitatives.

La Roche pontificates on the deafening noise of the

orchestra, which drowns out the singers, forcing them to

shriek. He waxes nostalgic on the subject of song and the

beauty of the human voice, mourning the great tradition of

Italian song: Bel Canto is slowly dying!

To illustrate the magnificence of Bel Canto, La Roche

brings in two singers to perform an ornamental little duet

from an Italian opera with a text by Metastasio. The words

are a sorrowful lovers’ farewell, Farewell, my life,

farewell, do not weep for my fate … Farewell, light of my

eyes.

The Countess observes that the text doesn’t seem to suit

the music. Flamand and Olivier agree that it takes a certain

art to use a cheerful tune to express great sorrow.

The Count and Clairon have a flirtatious interchange, with

Clairon agreeing to let the Count escort her back to Paris to

read lines with her.

The Countess persuades La Roche to reveal to the group a

few details of the grandiose production he is preparing for

her birthday celebration. There are two parts, he tells them.

First, a depiction of the birth of Athena from the head of

Zeus. La Roche explains the story to his befuddled

audience: after Zeus and Metis conceived the child, Zeus

swallowed the mother, and the daughter grew inside him

until she emerged, fully armed, from his head.

Carried away with amusement, his listeners join in an octet

( The Laughing Ensemble ) and mock the notion of trying to

depict this preposterous story on stage. Clairon calls it a

bizarre depiction of the joys of fatherhood. The Count,

convinced that theatre people are nuts, cracks up at the

image of Athena riding in full armour out of Zeus’ head to

celebrate his sister’s birthday. The Italian soprano

rhapsodizes about the cake, while the tenor worries they

won’t be paid for the gig and then berates the soprano for

drinking too much.

Flamand imitates the orchestration for the moment when

the goddess, with shield and spear, slips out from the head

of her father: Drums and Cymbals! Tschin! Tschin! Boom!

Boom! Olivier anticipates the wonders of La Roche’s

directorial abilities as Hephaestos swings his hammer to

break open Zeus’ head so the baby goddess can be born.

His skull throbs! He’s relieved!

The Countess is enchanted by La Roche’s intensity and his

wild imagination, and a little touched by his seriousness

and naïveté. La Roche castigates the younger generation

for their irreverence and ignorance in making fun of

mythology. Nothing is sacred! … No understanding of my

inspiration! … Present-day youth has no respect!

Seeing that La Roche is offended, the Countess soothes

him, explaining that although they are impressed by his

brilliant idea, they can’t imagine how on earth it could be

staged – We’re just amateurs. But she’s sure he’ll pull it

off with his great skill as a director.

And what is the subject of the second part of your

spectacle? she asks. The Fall of Carthage , responds La

Roche grandly, and this breathtaking production will pull

out all the stops – the town in flames, a sea of fire … four

thousand candles … a galley of my own construction,

pitching and tossing! Lightning and thunderbolts in the

middle of the stage…the sails in flames – a burning wreck!

Tidal wave in the harbour! The palace falls in ruins…

Flamand and Olivier scoff at what is sure to come next –

At the end, a gorgeous ballet in the ruins! Tempers start to

flare as a second octet, The Quarrelling Ensemble , begins,

and everyone again weighs in with an opinion.

Flamand and Olivier are appalled: The scenery is playing

the leading role! … Words or Music? Ha! The question is

Flight Machines versus Trap-Doors! … Why even have an

orchestra when the thunder machine will do so much

better? … On top of all this they will sing Italian! Trills!

Runs! Cadenzas! They declare they will have nothing to do

with the production.

As Flamand and Olivier are ganging up on La Roche, the

Countess expresses her dismay at their brutality and her

distress for La Roche. The Count watches with avid glee:

Ha! The noble arts are at loggerheads...their apostles are

squabbling among themselves. They show their teeth and

start to brawl! … La Roche in a fix! An exquisite sight!

Ha! … How will he get out of it?

Pacific Opera Victoria Capriccio : Synopsis and Libretto

Clairon, however, is confident that La Roche can take care

of himself and that he will shortly strike back.

The tenor gives up all hope of collecting his fee, then joins

in as the tipsy soprano sings a reprise of their duet, this

time bidding a tender, heartbroken farewell to their money.

La Roche then launches into a monumental tirade, scolding

both poet and composer for arrogantly judging him while

they themselves have done nothing for the theatre. He tells

them their little poems and chamber pieces, while nice

enough in their way, have neither the dramatic structure

nor the human passion essential for great theatre. He

agrees that public taste has become vulgar and brainless,

but tells them, You despise these goings on and yet you

tolerate them. You share the guilt because of your silence.

La Roche goes on to glorify his role in preserving culture,

and tradition: I serve the eternal laws of the theatre. I

preserve … the art of our fathers … I reverently preserve

the old, hoping patiently for the fruitful new, expecting the

works of genius of our time! Where are the masterpieces

that touch the heart of the people, that reflect their souls?

Where are they? I cannot find them, hard though I search.

He challenges Flamand and Olivier to either come up with

a theatrical masterpiece of their own or stop criticizing

him. I want to people my stage with human beings! People

who resemble us and speak in our language! Let their

sorrows move us deeply and let their joys fill our hearts

with gladness!

He finishes in top form: On my tombstone you will read

the inscription: Here lies La Roche, the unforgettable, the

immortal Theatre Director. The Friend of Comedy, the

patron of Tragic Art. A father of the stage, guardian angel

of artists. The gods loved him, and mankind admired him!

Amen.

This bombastic, but deeply felt manifesto is greeted with

stormy applause and Clairon’s witty La Roche, you are

monumental! The soprano bursts into tipsy sobs and is led

away by the irritated tenor.

The Countess picks up on La Roche’s challenge and

commands Flamand and Olivier to work together in

harmony to create a glorious new work. They latch eagerly

onto the idea as the Count moans that now he’ll be the

victim of an opera.

Talk now turns to practical matters. La Roche starts giving

advice. To Flamand: Give the aria its due! Always

consider the singers – keep the orchestra quiet! To Olivier:

Don’t put the Primadonna’s scene at the beginning. Make

the verses comprehensible and repeat them often so there’s

a chance they’ll be understood.

Then comes the question of a subject for the opera. Olivier

suggests Ariadne auf Naxos , but Flamand dismisses it as

having been done too often before (to an orchestral

quotation from Strauss’s own opera by the same name).

Flamand then proposes Daphne, but Olivier objects that

staging the heroine’s transformation into a tree would pose

a problem (as it had in Strauss’s 1938 opera Daphne, until

Clemens Krauss came up with the solution.)

Ironically, the Count, who doesn’t want an opera at all,

comes up with the topic: an opera exactly as La Roche

wants, depicting the conflicts and events of the very day

they have been living. La Roche is a little hesitant (Will it

be too indiscreet? It would be a challenge to stage).

However, everyone is intrigued, and Flamand and Olivier

are eager to begin. As the guests prepare to leave, the

Countess bids them adieu and exits.

Scene 10

The Count and Clairon depart for Paris, and La Roche

ushers out the singers, assuring them their money will be

ready the next day. As Flamand and Olivier prepare to

depart, still jousting over whether the words or the music

will have pride of place, La Roche admonishes them not to

forget his big scene – the high point of the piece – in which

he will direct everyone in a rehearsal. And, above all, they

must take care to give him a really great exit.

La Roche then leaves with Flamand and Olivier.

Scene 11

Eight servants enter. As they tidy up, they comment on the

goings on – the soprano’s appetite for cake, the shouting

about theatre (it’s all Greek to one; another explains that

the director wants to make some theatre reforms before

he’s dead; a third suggests they may soon let servants have

roles in opera). All agree that the Count is looking for a

tender adventure and the Countess is in love but doesn’t

know with whom – and to make up her mind she lets them

write her an opera.

Their opinions on opera are much like the Count’s: They

have it sung so you don’t understand the words. And that is

very necessary, or else you would rack your brains about

the muddled content.

They mention their favourite entertainments – tightrope

dancers, marionettes, that ghastly play about Coriolanus,

who stabs his own daughter! As the servants wonder about

putting on an amusing show for the Countess’s birthday,

the major-domo gives them the good news that as soon as

they serve supper they’ll be free for the evening. They go

off happily.

Scene 12

The prompter, Monsieur Taupe (his name is French for

mole), emerges unexpectedly from the small theatre where

he had been left asleep and forgotten.

He tells the major-domo about the life of a prompter: I am

the invisible ruler of a magical world ... Only when I sit in

my prompt box does the great wheel of the theatre begin to

turn. The deep thoughts of our poets – I whisper them to

myself in a quiet voice, and everything comes to life.

Reality is mirrored in front of me ... My own whispering

Pacific Opera Victoria Capriccio : Synopsis and Libretto

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