For all its lack of purpose, the bourgeoisie does not lack a strong sense of purpose.  In this Opera, Strauss gives equal treatment to the Allies of World War II, the words and Olivier, and the Axis Powers, the music and Flamand.  The two sides, locked in a comic yet tiring war, find themselves equally at their wits’ ends, unable to declare a victor to the very end.

 

In the real world, this proved false and actually should have appeared false from the very beginning.  Germany had no hope of winning the war and the Nazi party only entered the war to exhaust Germany itself as a means of freeing the US and the UK from any threat from the East.  The US and the UK went on to commit unconscionable crimes for the rest of the 20th century abetted by their Stalinist allies in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

 

Strauss, at the age of 68 in 1933, too old to leave Germany, remained throughout the Nazi Regime’s reign. The Nazis used threats to his family to control his art, eventually killing 25 members of his family.  In this way, they argued for an equal treatment in intellectual productions to that of the allies.  Their murders of artists and their families led to the allied bombing of German Opera Houses throughout the country, a continuation of their crimes against their own people.

 

The moral equivalency between the Nazis and the Allied Powers does not prove an equivalency in power.  The falseness of National Socialism and Stalinism lies in their internal weakness, based on the division of the international working class using political borders that the bourgeoisie can cross freely.  Only a world revolution, not based on socialism in one country but on a socialist world government can overcome the power of the international banks, corporations, imperialist militaries, and the borderless oligarchy.

 

Strauss’s ideas certainly plumbed the depth of the artist’s relation to society.  He turned the spotlight on the back rooms of the Opera rather than a helpless individual, in this way threatening the German establishment with a zeal similar to that of the allied bombers.  If, as a society, we cannot remove tyrannical governments and return the power to the people, then all our accomplishments will only serve to enslave humanity when in fact it is humanity which the artist much serve.  In order to do this, we must block the roads of National Socialism and Stalinism as false roads to socialism, as servants of the Capital.  We must, rather, open the road for the Fourth International and let it pass through.

Capriccio – Opera Guide (opera-guide.ch)

DIRECTOR

Holà, you fighter in Apollo! You mock and insult my festive theater?! What gives you a right to
speak so over-lovingly and to revile me, the knowing expert?! You who haven’t
done anything for the theatre yet?! (to Olivier) Your verses in honor, – when
Clairon speaks them! But the meager plot of your dramas – their dramatic
structure? – Very much in need of my scenic help! (to Flamand) Your small
ensembles for string instruments: – graceful chamber music! She delights the salon.
Unfortunately, I overslept today. You can probably sing elegiac romances, but
music of passions, as the stage demands it, you have not yet succeeded! – No,
no, your veto doesn’t make me tremble!

What do you boys know about my worries? Look at the lower antics that our capital
delights in. The grimace is its symbol – the parody its element – its content
immoral impudence! Tölpisch and Rudde are their passports! The masks have
fallen, but you see grimaces instead of human faces! You despised this activity,
and yet, you tolerate it! You make yourselves guilty by your silence. Your
phalanx is not directed against me! I am a servant of the eternal laws of
theatre. I preserve the good that we possess, I hold up the art of our fathers.
Full of reverence I guard the old, wait patiently for the fertile new, await
the ingenious works of our time! Where are the works that speak to the heart of
the people, that reflect their soul? Where are you? – I can’t find them. [As]
much as I search, only pale aesthetes look at me: they mock the old and do not
create anything new! In their dramas, paper heroes strut, pull out the swords
and wield tirades that we have known for a long time. In the opera, the same:
old priests and Greek kings from ancient times, druids, prophets walk like
bills out of the scenes. – I want to populate my stage with people! With people
who are like us, who speak our language! Their sufferings should move us and
their joys should move us deeply! on! Rise up and create the works I seek!
Powerfully on my stage I lead them to proud success. Sharpen your wit, give the
theater new laws -new content! Where not – so leave me at peace with your
criticism. Today, at the zenith of my glorious course, I dare to speak of
myself, – of me, the discoverer of great talents – the wise educator, the
inspirer! Without [me], my peers, where would the theatre be? Without my bold
daring and finally – without my helpful hand? … Give yourselves defeated, you
swarmers, you dreamers! Respect the dignity of my stage! My goals are louder,
indelible my merits[!] I fight for the beauty and the noble adherent of the
theater. With this slogan in my heart, I live my life for the theater, and I
will continue to live in the annals of its history! »Sicitur ad astra!« On my
gravestone you will read the inscription: “Here rests La Roche, the
unforgettable, the immortal theatre director. The friend of the cheerful muse,
the promoter of serious art. [To] the stage a father, [to] the artists a
protective spirit. The gods loved him, the people admired him! ” – Amen.