音樂，電影及紀錄片研討系列 -- 歌劇欣賞
主題：Capriccio (隨想曲)
主持：廖炳惠教授
日期 / 時間︰ 1/22/11（星期日）2:00 PM
文：廖炳惠(英文)，曾俊隆(中文) 圖:曾俊隆

Capriccio (subtitled “A Conversation Piece for Music”) is the last opera by Richard Strauss (11 June 1864-8 Sept. 1949); it was premiered on 28 Oct. 1942, with libretto supplied by Clemens Krauss and the composer. It is a meta-opera on the making of the opera, in response to Richard Wagner’s notion of music drama as a synthetic art that subsumes all other expressive cultural forms. In the opera, a major question raised is: “which is the greater art, poetry or music?” Both Flamand the musician and Olivier the poet fall in love with Madeleine the countess. Flamand and Olivier compete with each other in winning attention of the pretty countess who is torn between the two suitors but somehow manages to encourage both to collaborate in finishing a new opera. In highlighting the fall of Carthage, Capriccio also reflects Strauss’ sense of the world coming to an end, during the war period in which his various attempts to save his Jewish relatives and friends often faltered. In the concluding scene, almost everybody leaves the chateau, with nothing much accomplished except dinner being served in the empty house. Deceptively uneventful and even redundant, the opera is a most mature work by a greatest composer of the twentieth century, filled with delightful and humorous hymns of love and art.

Unlike other composers who tend to concentrate on myth (Wagner), fate (Verdi), history (Mussorgsky), or love (Puccini), Richard Strauss deepens our thinking of the opera as a declining (albeit elitist) modern institution which is increasingly replaced by musicals and popular entertainments. Several of his operas deal cynically with the superfluous roles of composer, librettist, singer, and stage designer; musicians are frequently at the mercy of patrons, spectators, and media. In Ariadne auf Naxos, for example, the composer is forced to cut short arias and even to modify them so that they would fit into musicals and become more accessible to common people. To Strauss, the opera should know its place and cultivate self-realization or ethical awakening. Married to a bossy wife Pauline (who was a garrulous and imposing soprano), Strauss dedicated his opera Intermezzo to her only to get the remarks: “I don’t give a damn.” This may be partly why Strauss’ operas have more to do with domesticity, intimacy, self-reflexivity, and everyday banality. It is always through self-discovery and internal checking that the characters find meanings and solutions. Among his most popular operas, Der Rosenkavalier foregrounds the transformation processes of Octavian in face of true love. The empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten embraces humanity by coming to terms with her limitations. Even the Alpine Symphony is about Strauss’ journey and exploration of the unknown.

In sum, Strauss’ Capriccio is by no means epic in scale, therefore no comparison to Wagner’s Ring Cycle or Meistersinger. The opera is very lyrical in the ways it raises question of multiple talents involved in the operatic institution. The arias are poetical revelries on love and art, on the difficulty of emotional choices, and especially on the art of surviving difference. In many ways, Strauss is a true heir to Mozart (particularly Magic Flute) and Beethoven (Fidelio), in emphasizing interiority and reciprocity.
As a few versions are available, we will better comprehend the opera by listening on and comparing them in detail.

故事大意

音樂家和詩人對於自己的創作的重要性,爭執不休，而且兩個人同時愛上公爵夫人，但是公爵夫人卻是自己也搞不清她到底愛誰。最後導演出招，讓他們兩人舞台上較勁，最後確是沒有結果。

廖炳惠教授先概述 Richard Georg Strauss的生平及背景，他的重耍作品,參考Wikipedia 如下：
理查·格奧爾格·史特勞斯（德語：Richard Georg Strauss，1864年6月11日－1949年9月8日），德國晚期浪漫主義作曲家、指揮家。他與以小約翰·史特勞斯為代表的維也納史特勞斯家族沒有關係，一般都以全名理查·史特勞斯稱呼，以與該家族的眾多成員相區分。

他的父親是當時有名的圓號演奏家弗朗茨•史特勞斯（Franz Strauss），從小就受到父親的音樂教導，八歲的時候開始學小提琴。他的父親的教導非常注重「浪漫主義」，但理察•史特勞斯本身的音樂最後成為了20世紀現代音樂的重要組成部分。

理查·史特勞斯的早期作品具有典型的浪漫主義的特點，在其創作生涯的極盛期被認識為晚期浪漫主義最重要的代表人物，晚期的作品流露出一定的現代派傾向，如調性的瓦解等等。理察•史特勞斯的音樂創作和指揮偏好都表現出他對於德意志古典音樂傳統的熱愛和深刻理解，他深受莫扎特和華格納的影響（後者幾乎影響了理察•史特勞斯那個時代所有的作曲）。理察•史特勞斯具有極其卓越的對位寫作才能，幾乎所有作品的織體都非常複雜。

理查·史特勞斯在1933年曾擔任納粹德國的國家音樂局總監（事前未與他本人協商），後來因為在猶太籍音樂家與納粹當局意見不合，於1935年辭職；戰後受到審查，直到1948年才由政府正式澄清。事實上，他由於創作涉及同性戀話題的《埃萊克特拉》，與猶太作家茨威格合作《沉默的女人》，以及兒媳是猶太人等原因一直受到納粹政府的監視。

他還是美國電影《飄》配樂作曲家馬克斯·史坦納的教父和老師。

˙ 1900年以前創作了大量交響詩。他的交響詩從內容上看分為哲理性交響詩和敘事性交響詩兩類，前者以《死與變容》（Tod und Verklarung）和根據尼采的著作《查拉圖斯特拉如是說》（Also sprach Zarathustra）寫成的同名作品最為有名，後者以《唐璜》（Don Juan）和《唐吉軻德》（Don Quixote）最為有名。

˙ 1900年後他將主要的創作精力放在了歌劇上。前兩部歌劇《貢特拉姆》（Guntram）和《火荒》（Feuersnot）有明顯的華格納的影子，尚未形成自己的風格。第三部歌劇《莎樂美》（Salome）因在故事情節上駭人聽聞，而引起爭議，但仍取得巨大的成功，當時的德國皇帝在接見史特勞斯時對他說：創作這樣的歌劇對他沒有好處，史特勞斯回答：至少他用創作這部歌劇的收入買了一棟鄉間別墅。第四部歌劇《厄勒克特拉》（Elektra）則在音樂上駭人聽聞，而再次引起爭議。第五部歌劇《玫瑰騎士》（Der Rosenkavalier）音樂優美動人，但是在音樂品論界引起不小的爭論，有評論家稱史特勞斯擺脫了惡作劇的作風，回歸到正常的音樂中；又有品論家指責史特勞斯才智耗盡，只能靠優美旋律來吸引聽眾，全然喪失了以前的創新精神。隨後的歌劇創作，史特勞斯繼續《玫瑰騎士》的成功經驗。其後理察·史特勞斯創作幾部使用古希臘神話題材抒寫20世紀現代人情感的歌劇，包括《阿里阿德涅在納索斯島》（Ariadne auf Naxos）、《埃及的海倫》（Die agyptische Helena）、《達芙妮》（Daphne）、《達奈的愛情》（Die Liebe der Danae）和最後一部歌劇《隨想曲》（Capriccio，1942）。

˙ 1944年至1945年創作為23件獨奏弦樂器的《變形》，據戰後理察·史特勞斯說，是有感於德國各地的歌劇院遭到戰爭破壞，特別是在得知魏瑪的歌德故居和德勒斯登國家歌劇院毀於戰火（後者毀於德勒斯登轟炸）之後，精神一度錯亂，事後回憶那段時間而獲得靈感寫作的。1947年至1948年寫出最後的傑作，女高音和管弦樂的《最後四首歌》。