What a delight to see Simone Young step onto the podium to conduct her first opera in Melbourne in 20 years.

A delight tinged with regret that it had taken so long since she parted ways with Opera Australia in 2003, and that the occasion was a one-off concert rather than a fully staged performance repeated several times over.

Simone Young. Photo supplied

Victorian Opera invited Young back to Melbourne for its latest foray into the works of Richard Strauss, following last year’s Elektra concert. A “conversation piece for music”, Capriccio displays the composer’s technical virtuosity and gift for melody, and is an ideal showcase for this internationally renowned conductor at the height of her powers.

However, wordy, philosophical recitative, presented on this occasion for two and half hours without interval, would arguably have benefited from some visual pleasure.

Strauss’s final opera premiered in 1942 in Munich, with the season proceeding through nightly Allied air raids. Capriccio is set in 1775 in Countess Madeleine’s chateau, where artistic festivities are being prepared for her birthday. The poet Oliver and composer Flamand, who are rivals for her affections, debate whether words or music are...