Teatro Real Arabella

Arabella, a young Viennese countess on the marriage market, navigates the complexities of love and social expectation in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Her family's financial troubles lend urgency to finding her an advantageous match, yet Arabella finds herself drawn to the mysterious Count Mandryka, a wealthy stranger from the Balkans who arrives in Vienna with genuine affection. As various suitors circle and her sister Zdenka—disguised as a boy—creates romantic entanglements, Arabella must reconcile duty with desire. The opera explores the tension between romantic idealism and pragmatic necessity, culminating in a resolution that honors both passion and propriety. Strauss's final operatic collaboration with Hofmannsthal, Arabella blends lyrical beauty with sophisticated social comedy.