Intermezzo

Intermezzo, by Richard Strauss, dir. John Cox, starring Felicity Lott ★★★
This is a well-performed opera, and Felicity Lott is absolutely delightful, both with her voice and in her acting. It is somewhat autobiographical, reflecting an incident somewhat early on in the marriage of Richard and Pauline Strauss. This is one of Strauss’s last operas and reflects the music that is most wonderful, but the singing tends to border on Sprachstimme, (sing-song voice) rather than real singing. It’s not an opera that one would tend to watch many times over, or produce musical excerpts. But, it does reflect creative genius manifest by R. Strauss, and thus worth watching at least once.