The Betrothal Duet from Arabella (1933)

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

The Betrothal Duet from Arabella (1933)

Like Der Rosenkavalier, a previous collaboration between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, Arabella is set in Vienna - not, however, in the middle of the 18th century but a century later and not in aristocratic society but a rank down from there among the lesser and in some cases poorer nobility. If Arabella’s struggling family is to restore the fortune lost at the gambling tables by her father, Count Waldner, she is going to have to make a rich marriage. She, on the other hand, insists that only “der Richtige,” the right man for her, will do. Happily, their problems are solved when Arabella falls in love with Mandryka, a rich landowner from Croatia, and he with her. The episode in which they plight their troth is as inspired as any of Strauss’s love scenes. Beginning almost conversationally, it includes characteristically robust declarations from Mandryka, what must be the most ecstatic aside in all opera from Arabella, and a tender duet based (in acknowledgement of Mandryka’s racial origins) on a melodious little Croatian folk song.