Music: A Happy Balance

French opera fans are wary of opera sung in foreign tongues: German, in particular, they think, is a language that sits uneasily in the throat. Nevertheless, when Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 46, was lured to Paris to make a double debut—as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier at the Paris Opéra, and as the Countess in Capriccio at the Opéra Comique—both productions were cast in the original German. In Soprano Schwarzkopf's case, the language might also have served as a reminder of her early career as a leader of a Nazi studentbund and a wartime favorite of Nazi audiences. But if she had...

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