A formidable cast for Covent Garden’s Capriccio

Richard Strauss’s operatic swansong Capriccio made an elegant and untaxing conclusion to the Royal Opera’s season. It was done in concert, but there was a fair amount of acting, more from some of the participants than others. Renée Fleming as the Countess, who feels she has to choose between a poet and a composer, wrung her hands, strode around as much as her fabulous silver and black gown allowed, and in the final scene smote her brow in best distraught Joan Crawford manner; the others huffed and flounced and strode off into the wings, and there was, as much as there can be in this strange opera, a sense of people interacting rather than just singers doing their thing.

It’s odd that Strauss, who could, when he put his mind to it, characterise with brevity and precision, here not only chooses to have a large cast, but also leaves most of them in a more or less undifferentiated state, floating on a medium-sized lake of generalised semi-melody.