DISCOVERY OF NEW STRAUSS OPERA DECLARED "DELICIOUS"

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

J.P. Donnegan

International Musicologist Review Daily

1 April 2023

For over a week the hushed air of top secrecy has surrounded the authentication process following the discovery of an opera previously alleged to have been composed by the great German composer Richard Strauss.  The opera, Carpaccio, a romantic comedy, has long thought to have been destroyed by the composer sometime in the 1940’s.  There has been considerable debate among leading musicologists, some of who alleged the work had not been written by Strauss at all, while others declaring no such work ever existed.

Musicologists Dreyfus Bertrand and Joan Kaye Hershey-Calliope headed an international team summoned to verify and authenticate the work, the autograph of which was discovered just over a year ago in the basement of the Internationale Jugendbibliothek München.  Following more than a year of extensive examination, the process is now complete and the official announcement is this indeed is the work of Richard Strauss.

The opera is in a single act, with a prologue.  Set in Venice, Carpaccio centers around Marie Therese Ariadnedaphnebella  (aka Madeline), widow of a wealthy Baron and Venetian restaurateur, and her quest to answer the eternal question:  which element of a dinner engagement is the most important; the appetizer/cocktail hour, or the dinner proper?  Madeline’s dilemma is made all the more deliciously difficult by two rival suitors, each hoping to gain her hand in marriage.  

First, is Hermann Bacchus, a local purveyor of international wines and cheeses, world renowned for his dazzling miniature creations combining exotic meats, seafood and vegetables either encased in pastries or enrobed in cheeses, pierced through their hearts and fastened together by means of miniature swords bearing his family crest festooned upon the fanciest of ribbon flourishes.  His most dazzling creation, however, is his simplest:  Raw beef, sliced so thinly it’s practically diaphanous . . . . transparent, and dressed with but a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice and a gentle sprinkling of his beloved Parma Reggiano.  Such simplicity, is balked at by the servants, and houseguests, but Madeline’s eyes moisten as on a silver charger, the meat of Bacchus is thrust before her.

Madeline’s second suitor, Hans Jäger, is a handsome local whose hunting prowessis legendary.  With a particular penchant for wild game he is known to be capable of killing and field dressing a wild boar in the blink of an eye and, within the hour, have it roasting upon a spit, its fragrance wafting through the village, leaving mouths watering and eyes moistened by tears. Jäger extols the virtues of his roasts, hearty and succulent and always accompanied by soufflés of such height and delicacy they all but lift themselves from the table on invisible, fragrant clouds. 

The guests arrive for Madeline's dinner party, a celebration of epic proportions, the highlight of which will be her announcement of her decision as to which element of the dinner is most important . . . and revealing the man she will wed.  Her guests are entranced as each hero sings his own praises.  In an elaborate coupe de theatre specifically described in Hofmannsthal's libretto, a panel at the rear of the stage rises, to reveal a working kitchen, with dozens of cooks, working at a dizzying pace, frantically putting together the meal.

As ever with Strauss and Hofmannsthal, complications arise with the unexpected arrival of a young pastry chef from France; the impossibly handsome Renè Mignon.  Mignon,shutters himself behind a screen where rapidly the audience alone can see as he whips egg whites into a frenzy, grinds almonds into flour, assembles butter, sugar, adding shavings from enormous blocks of 86 percent cacao nibs slowly simmering in cream, before adding a final touch of extravagance; a wild and strangely bitter orange liqueur.  Quel mysterieux!  With the deft hand of an artiste, Mignon blends all into a creation of such delicious breadth and velvety depth that when it is presented before her, Madeline is rendered incapable of preventing a certain biological response she’d hitherto rarely known.  Elated, she bursts into a rapturous ode, as, mouthful after mouthful, she extols the glories of the virtuous young Mignon.

All assemble for her decision.  Madeline checks her watch and sings of the passing of time.  Gazing into her mirror to adjust her coiffure, she finally turns back toward her guests to announce her choice:  it is the young Monsieur Mignon, who has captured her heart, and he she shall wed.  

Defeated, but not forlorn, Bacchus and Jäger, call it a day and depart for an evening at Harry’s Bar for a repast of some Bellinis and . . . Carpaccio.

Curtain.

* * * *

Naturally, with a discovery of such magnitude, bidding wars for the world premiere of Strauss' "new" opera had already begun with the confirmation.  A drawing earlier today the publishers have announced drawing reveals the work will be a co-production between the 2024 Glyndebourne Festival and the Miami/Dade County Community Civic Light Opera Association and Gilbert and Sullivan Society.