Strauss - Capriccio, February 25, 27, March 2, 4, and 6, 2010. Royal Theatre. In German with English surtitles
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Capriccio

A Conversation on Capriccio

with Timothy Vernon

POV's original production of Richard Strauss's Capriccio is an extraordinary event, not just because the opera is a gorgeous rarity being produced on stage for the first time in Canada, and not just because it will be recorded for broadcast by CBC – but because our own Timothy Vernon is a "grand-student" of both Richard Strauss (Capriccio's composer and co-librettist) and Clemens Krauss (co-librettist and conductor for the opera's 1942 premiere).

POV's third foray into Richard Strauss, following productions of Ariadne auf Naxos and Daphne, is thus a source of particular joy for Timothy.

In 1965 Timothy left Victoria for 10 years in Vienna, where he studied under the guidance of Hans Swarowsky, who had studied conducting with both Strauss and Krauss.

Swarowsky is also responsible for the most notable lines in the Capriccio libretto. In 1939, as Strauss and Krauss were working on Capriccio, they cast about for an authentic French love sonnet to represent the cause of words in the words-vs-music debate within the opera. Swarowsky, who was working for Krauss as a dramaturge, was charged with finding an appropriate 18th century poem. When his research revealed that love sonnets had gone out of fashion at that time, Swarowsky suggested a sonnet from the Continuation des Amours of the 16th century poet Pierre de Ronsard.

Swarowsky translated Ronsard's poem into elegant and lyrical German, and the delighted Strauss immediately set it to music, first as a Lied for voice and piano, then, with some changes, as the pivotal sonnet whose iterations form the core of the opera.

Swarowsky went on to make his mark as a conductor and as one of the most influential teachers of the century, counting among his students Claudio Abbado, Bruno Weil, Zubin Mehta . . . and Timothy Vernon.

Timothy remembers Swarowsky as a man of great charm, with a sly and sardonic sense of humour.

We students could look forward to a bracing dose of having our heroes dumped upon, for Swarowsky was a harsh critic of much standard practice.

He insisted that musical interpretation should go back to the score and remain true to the text of the composer – a modern approach very much in tune with Strauss's own.

Timothy found Swarowsky to be an outstanding teacher, with encyclopedic knowledge and a rigorous, autocratic approach to analyzing every note of a score for function, meaning and structure – rationalism trumped the emotional side of music. Timothy recalls Swarowsky asking students to name the greatest work by Wagner. The usual suspects emerged, including The Ring Cycle and Tristan und Isolde. But no – for Swarowsky, the greatest Wagnerian opus was the text of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. For Timothy this epitomizes Swarowsky's intellectual and analytical bent, which is what made him such a superb teacher and such a fine translator – as his contribution to the libretto of Capriccio makes clear.

Timothy first saw Capriccio as a student in Vienna, in a production conducted by one of Strauss's great colleagues and proponents, Karl Böhm, to whom Daphne is dedicated.

Capriccio took some time to grow into Timothy's affections:

It doesn't have the immediate éclat of Salome or Elektra, both products of Strauss's early enfant terrible days, nor the upfront sentimental emotions of Der Rosenkavalier. It is a late work, and like the late works of the greatest composers, Capriccio is an astonishing distillation of Strauss's genius. With its limpidity, its lack of anything extraneous to either text or score, the urbane and knowing text, the beautifully constructed scenes, the in-jokes for those who love opera – it is little wonder Strauss considered this Conversation Piece for Music his artistic legacy.

In fact, even as he was completing Capriccio, Strauss was writing to Krauss,

Do you really believe that after Capriccio . . . something better or even just as good could follow? Is this D flat major [the opera's final key] not the best conclusion to my life's work for the theatre? After all, one can leave only one testament!

Strauss's last completed opera, Capriccio shares a quality of transfiguration – a sense of reaching beyond – with the other works of Stauss's magnificent late flowering, including Die Liebe der Danae, the second Horn Concerto, the 1946 Oboe Concerto, the poignant Metamorphosen, and the transcendant Four Last Songs.

Timothy again:

The music is unflagging in its inspiration: marvellously witty and wise and ripe, with a terrific sense of delight and of the ineffable evanescence of life itself; it gives off an iridescent flash of vigour and life and humour, and such human and mortal beauty; it is quite consoling.

As with the greatest opera composers (think Mozart, Puccini, Verdi) Strauss's sense of the theatre is as strong as his musical inspiration. Timothy sees La Roche, Capriccio's pragmatic, over-the-top man of the theatre, as something of a mouthpiece for Strauss, advocating for the entire theatrical experience. Strauss obsessed over every aspect of the creative process – witness his fascinating, detailed correspondence with a succession of librettists – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan Zweig, poor Joseph Gregor (who never quite "got" Strauss), and Clemens Krauss. Strauss was definitely not the kind of composer to take a ready-made libretto off the shelf, stir and add music!

When asked what he would add to the words-vs-music conversation in Capriccio, Timothy responds:

Well, the opera is so well structured that there are not a lot of dangling edges. I don't know that I would have come down on either side at the end. Though I might add that with Strauss, the composer becomes the dramaturge. Pace, plot, moments when tensions mount, moments of resolution – everything is moved forward by the music. The composer really is in charge – but he must be inspired by the text.

As he did for Daphne, Timothy Vernon is reducing the score for Capriccio. Strauss' scoring uses normal string and brass sections, but some 15 woodwind parts will be reduced to accommodate the eight Victoria Symphony players.

Maureen Woodall

POV's production of Capriccio will be broadcast on CBC Radio Two, June 19, 2010, at 1 pm on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera

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