For 15 minutes last week a tall, hulking old man stood before the curtains at the Dresden Opera while a great German audience hocked him until it was hoarse. He was Composer Richard Strauss and Dresden, in accordance with its tradition, had put on the world premiere of another of his operas. This one was Arabella, the libretto for which had been written by Strauss's longtime collaborator, Poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, just before he died. It concerned the daughters of a bankrupt Viennese count, the youngest of whom paraded through three acts dressed as...
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