Sublime Absurdity

Strauss may have been born in Munich, lived in Garmisch and worked in Berlin, but he always maintained a special relationship with Dresden, a city that witnessed the première of no fewer than nine of his operas, including such masterpieces as Elektra, Salome and Rosenkavalier. In honour of this relationship, Dresden’s Semperoper organised the Richard-Strauss-Tage, a three-week celebration of his operas and vocal music on the occasion of his 150th birthday. In addition to a new production of Arabella, they also revived a number of productions from their repertoire, including Marco Arturo Marelli’s Capriccio, which featured unforgettable performances from Renée Fleming and Georg Zeppenfeld, and a magisterial reading from Christian Thielemann. Mr Marelli’s production may be starting to show its age – it first appeared in 1993 – but its…