I don’t think Arabella will ever be a popular opera here in the U. S. It requires too much of audiences in the way of attention to granular details of language (surtitles are quickly outpaced and reductionist, besides), and of “historical mindedness” and cultural curiosity, which have both been on the way out for several decades now. And the musical and dramatic obstacles remain. But it can be moving and entertaining. As with so many works, we must await the arrival of a few special performers and of a production team eager to unearth its values and aesthetics to give it the standing it deserves.

A note on sources: in addition to the volumes mentioned in the main text, I have relied for background on Vienna primarily on two books, old friends that have become classics. They are Paul Hoffmann’s The Viennese/Splendor, Twilight, and Exile and Carl E. Schorske’s Fin-de-Siecle Vienna/Politics and Culture. References to the Arabella creators’ letters are from A Working Friendship/The Correspondence Between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, translated by Hanns Hammelmann and Ewald Osers.

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NEXT TIME: I’ll be seeing the Met’s new production of Bellini’s I Puritani on January 6, 2026. Target date for publication will be Friday, January 16. Warm wishes to all for the holiday season.

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