If you're a native English speaker, it's hard to imagine a more inviting introduction to Capriccio, Strauss's "conversation piece set to music," than hearing it sung in your own language. This rare English-language performance, which also marks the American premiere of the opera just 12 years after its world debut, brings an added immediacy and clarity to Strauss's witty and elegant score. Gloria Davy is radiant as the Countess, her voice soaring with warmth and grace while preserving the crisp articulation required for the text-driven libretto. A young Thomas Stewart lends his rich baritone to the role of La Roche, offering a glimpse of the commanding Wagnerian presence he would later become.