Richard Strauss: Arabella

Op­era in three acts by Richard Strauss
Lib­retto by Hugo von Hof­mannsth­al

This is Renée Flem­ing and Thomas Hampson’s first time per­form­ing to­geth­er in its en­tirety in Richard Strauss’ Ar­a­bella, a high­light of the 2014 Salzburg East­er Fest­iv­al. The Fest­iv­al per­form­ances of Strauss’ mu­sic cel­eb­rate the 150^th an­niversary of the com­poser’s birth. On top of that, Ar­a­bella was writ­ten for the Staat­skapelle and first per­formed in Dresden – Chris­ti­an Thiele­mann leads the Staat­skapelle Dresden and Florentine Klep­per dir­ects this new pro­duc­tion, which stun­ningly cap­tures Vi­enna’s Golden Age.

Ms. Flem­ing re­ceived rave re­views for her pre­vi­ous por­tray­als of Ar­a­bella, which she sang with the plush sound, sub­lime lyr­i­cism and dra­mat­ic sub­tlety that have en­deared her to op­era lov­ers (New York Times) and her sig­na­ture creamy sop­rano tone (…) fills the soar­ing lyr­ic­al phrases. (Op­era News)