In Richard Strauss's 1942 Capriccio, whose tenor and soprano featured in that last pair of articles, the actress (Clairon), the theater director (La Roche), and the prompter (Monsieur Taupe) are still more members of the cast who represent facets of theatrical life. Clairon is a seasoned, cynical woman, something of a contrast to her rather namby-pamby hostess, the countess Madeleine, especially in the face of the puppylove adoration of Madeleine by the poet, Olivier, and the composer, Flamand, and the countess's unsure reception of the men's attentions. Within moments of being introduced at Madeleine's salon, the actress launches into a reading of Olivier's latest play, assisted by Madeleine's brother -- a novice performer who clearly has a crush on Clairon. This is usually done with melodramatic comic flair, pointing up the amateurishness of the count; and in fact the actress repeatedly talks down to him in subsequent conversation -- he is just dense and infatuated enough that her remarks fly right over his head, to her own undisguised amusement. Yet Clairon is not a flirt; she is a very intelligent and dedicated artist within her own sphere, not an ingenue; usually played as a mature and striking woman, her typical roles include Andromache, Phaedre, Medea, and Roxane; and she is in fact about to leave for Paris to perform in Voltaire's Tancred. Clairon is fully aware that she has been brought to this salon as an employee of the theater, and not as her hostess's social equal -- she is there to do the acting equivalent of singing for her supper. But that's part of her job, and not a whole lot different from it: as she gaily explains as she re-enters after an offstage rehearsal, "...verwandeln uns aus sagehaften Gestalten in Menschen, die nach den Gesetzen des Salons ihre Rollen spielen." - "...we are changing back from portraying fictitious characters to people who play their parts according to the rules of society's salons." Playing up to the count won't increase her success as an actress per se, as this already seems secured, but to have a noble patron would probably make life just a bit more...sparkly, all the same.
