Singer

Although she is surrounded by many admirers, Arabella dreams only of the «right one». She finds him in Mandryka, the Croatian landowner. Opera history’s final idealized marriage of love was written on the precipice of disaster: The opera dates to a time of deep social insecurity. The operetta-like tone of Strauss’ «Lyrischer Komödie» is strangely fractured. When it premiered in Dresden in 1933, it was instrumentalized by the Nazis for propaganda purposes. 

Arabella

Zurich Opera House

He asks the marshal for a suitable candidate to deliver a silver rose to his very young bride Sophie - daughter of the newly ennobled, rich Lord of Faninal. The Marschallin suggests Octavian. She reflects melancholically on the transience of life. With a »light heart and light hands«, she wants to let Octavian go one day..

Mezzo-soprano

Stephanie Houtzeel

Events

Upcoming events

14 - 28 Apr, 2026

Arabella · Opernhaus Zürich

9 - 18 May, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Wiener Staatsoper

Future and recently performed repertoire

Adelaide in Arabella by Strauss

Opernhaus Zürich

Annina in Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Wiener Staatsoper

About

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