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Criticizing Richard Strauss for composing melodically enduring operas is as pointless as lambasting Vermeer for painting only exquisite interior scenes. Those who say Strauss never improved on Rosenkavalier may be right, but when such beguiling sounds kept coming from his music for the next 30 years of his life, there shouldn't be any quibbles. Arabella follows a woman who cannot make up her mind on a suitor and, like most Strauss operas, ends with a meltingly lovely duet. Taped at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1994 under the baton of conductor Christian Thielemann, this production features Kiri Te Kanawa in the title role; her acting is mediocre, but vocally she never forces anything and at least sounds like the perfect Arabella. Wolfgang Brendel does well with Mandryka, who finally ends up with Arabella, and Marie McLaughlin as Zdenka makes a sympathetic younger sister to the heroine. Otto Schenk's production is sturdily conservative, the video transfer is acceptable if unspectacular, and the sound mix is CD-quality. --Kevin Filipski
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