Intermezzo review – profoundly humane vision of Strauss's autobiographical opera

Garsington Opera at Wormsley
Bruno Ravella’s production boasts practically perfect performances from Mary Dunleavy and Mark Stone as the tempestuous Mr and Mrs Storch, and Jac van Steen conducts with sensitivityIntermezzo has long been regarded as one of Strauss’s problem pieces. First performed in 1924, and openly autobiographical, it dramatises a period of strain in the composer’s publicly stormy marriage, when his wife Pauline, erroneously suspecting him of having an affair, sued for di