Capriccio, Garsington Opera, Wormsley, review: Ingeniously controlled chaos
The IndependentSign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Tenor Sam Furness and baritone Gavan Ring are nicely contrasted as composer and poet, pointing up the ambiguity of their lines so that we can’t tell where fantasy ends and real life begins. In her closing aria – Strauss’s long goodbye to opera – she rose gloriously to the challenge of a tour de force which Elisabeth Schwarzkopf had once made her own. Under Douglas Boyd’s direction the musical edifice was splendidly sustained, repeatedly spinning golden harmony out of Strauss’s moments of ingeniously controlled chaos. If the opening show of the Garsington season – Netia Jones’s take on Die Zauberflöte – was profoundly misconceived, this serene production is a hit.
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