Arabella by Richard Strauss

We’ve all heard the worn out cliche reminding us that “two heads are better than one.” But maybe it’s not so worn out as it sounds. Sure, many of us prefer the “lone wolf” approach, at least in theory - that way we get more credit for our ideas and accomplishments. But when it comes to practice, we’re usually grateful for all the help we can get.

And that’s true of a lot of creative people. How many famous partnerships can you name, in the field of entertainment alone? Just listing all the great comic teams would take more space than our webmaster would allow! Let’s see, there’s Laurel and Hardy. They were one of the earliest. Then there was Abbott and Costello; Martin and Lewis; Bob and Ray. And Tom and Ray, to give things an NPR spin.

Another famous team, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara, spent 60 years creating most of the cartoon characters that kept kids my age glued to the TV every Saturday morning. And most of the characters they created also worked in teams: Tom and Jerry; Ruff and Ready; Yogi and Boo-Boo; Fred and Barney. And their creations got along pretty well with their rather unlikely partners.

Some of the best LIVE-action cinema to come along in the last few years was created by a team of brothers named Joel and Ethan Cohen. And their films tend to deal with partnerships as unlikely as those of the Hanna-Barbara cartoon characters: like the rich guy and the philosophical bowler in “The Big Lebowski,” or the darker, and even MORE dysfunctional alliance of lowlife kidnappers with a clueless car dealer in “Fargo.”

But the place where we may find the greatest number of famous partnerships - and some of the most enduring ones - is the world of music. If you love bluegrass, the teams of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, or Doc and Merle Watson are sure to get your mouths grinnin’ and yer toes tappin’. For jazz, you can’t beat Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. And in pop music, why say more than Lennon and McCartney?

And then there’s opera. Wagner notwithstanding, most operas are the result of a collaboration between partners. Without Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” “Cosi Fan Tutti,” and “The Marriage of Figaro” might be nothing more than collections of great musical numbers. And Arrigo Boito might be more famous as a composer if he hadn’t been so busy writing librettos for Verdi, like OTELLO, and FALSTAFF.

And then there’s this week’s opera, ARABELLA. It was the result of a nearly 30-year collaboration between composer Richard Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hoffmansthal. They produced operas like ELEKTRA, DER ROSENKAVALIER and ARIADNE AUF NAXOS. And their partnership culminated with ARABELLA, their final opera together.

This week on At the Opera, with Lou Santacroce, scholar Frank Trommler will tell us about the sometimes strange relationship between Strauss and Hofmannsthal. Regular guest Will Berger will make sure we know which Strauss was which - it was Richard who composed this opera, not that waltz guy, Johann, or any of those others. And conductor/author Scott Speck will be along to focus on the Richard Strauss’s brilliant and effective musical ideas. Then, stay tuned for NPR World of Opera, and a production of ARABELLA from Houston Grand Opera, with Renee Fleming in the title role.

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