TUESDAY September 12, 7:30 p.m.
DER ROSENKAVALIER
An opera in three acts
by Richard Strauss
Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
First performed in Dresden on 26 January 1911
Cast - principal members
Production
A 2014 production by the Vienna State Opera
from the Salzburg Festival
Direction by Harry Kupfer
Vienna Philharmonic
conducted by Franz Welser-Möst
Synopsis
ACT ONE
Princess Marie Therese (the Marschallin, the title given to a Field Marshal's wife) and her much younger lover, Count Octavian Rofrano, muse on their love together in the Marschallin's bedroom. During breakfast loud voices are heard. The Marschallin believes it is her husband returned unexpectedly from a hunting trip and has Octavian hide behind the bed. He reappears disguised as a chambermaid, "Mariandel", and tries to sneak away. But the Marschallin's country cousin Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau has unexpectedly entered; he tells the Marschallin about his engagement to Sophie, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. After boorishly describing his personal pastime of seducing peasant girls, he asks the Marschallin to recommend a young man to serve as his Rosenkavalier ("Knight of the Rose"), who will deliver the traditional silver engagement rose to Sophie. She suggests Octavian. When Ochs sees the young count's picture, he notices the count's resemblance to the chambermaid "Mariandel", and infers that she must be Octavian's illegitimate sister. Ochs propositions the "chambermaid". Octavian plays coy and leaves at the first chance.
The room then fills with supplicants to the Princess – including an Italian tenor who serenades the Marschallin,the Marschallin's notary and two Italian intriguers, Valzacchi and Annina.Valzacchi and Annina offer their services to Ochs. Amid all the activity, the Marschallin remarks to her hairdresser: "My dear Hippolyte, today you have made me look like an old woman."
When all have left, the Marschallin, reminded of her own early marriage by Ochs's young bride, sadly ponders her fleeting youth and the fickleness of men. When Octavian returns (in men's clothes) she realises that one day he will leave her. She muses on the passage of time and turns Octavian away. After he has left, she suddenly realizes that she has forgotten to kiss him goodbye, and sends some footmen after him; however, it is too late, he is gone. The Marschallin summons her page Mohammed to take the silver rose to Octavian to deliver to Sophie. She stares pensively into her mirror as the curtain falls.
ACT TWO
Herr von Faninal and Sophie await at home the arrival of the Rosenkavalier. Faninal exults in the happy prospect of being connected with the nobility by his daughter's advantageous marriage to the Baron. Following tradition, Faninal departs before the Knight appears. Sophie frets over her approaching marriage with a man she has never met. Octavian arrives with great pomp, dressed all in silver. He presents the silver rose to Sophie in an elaborate ceremony. The two young people fall in love at first sight.
During a chaperoned conversation, Sophie and Octavian exchange greetings and pleasantries. Ochs enters with Sophie's father. The Baron speaks familiarly with Octavian (though they have never officially met), examines Sophie like a chattel and generally behaves like a oaf. Sophie is disgusted and appalled by the prospect of being his wife. He exits. Sophie starts to weep, and Octavian promises to help her. They are discovered by Valzacchi and Annina, who hold them and shout for Ochs. Ochs considers the much younger Octavian no threat, but Octavian's temper is raised enough to challenge the bull-headed Ochs to a duel. He jabs Och's arm with his sword, drawing blood. Faninal and other members of the household come running in. Sophie tells her father that she will never marry Ochs, but her father insists, and threatens to send her to a convent Octavian is thrown out, and Sophie is sent to her room. Ochs, left alone on the divan, raises his spirits with a glass of port. Annina enters with a letter from "Mariandel", asking to meet him for a tryst. Ochs, in anticipation, dances around the stage to one of the opera's many ironic and wry waltzes. Annina hints that he should give her a tip for bringing the message; he puts her off, and she silently swears revenge.
ACT THREE
Valzacchi and Annina have switched alliances and are helping Octavian prepare a trap for the Baron in a private room in an inn. Ochs and "Mariandel" arrive. Ochs tries to seduce the seemingly willing chambermaid, though he is disturbed by her resemblance to Octavian. Cconspirators pop out of secret doors. Annina in disguise rushes in claiming that Ochs is her husband and the father of her children. The confusion grows and the police arrive, and to avoid a scandal, Ochs claims that "Mariandel" is his fiancée Sophie. Octavian lets the police inspector in on the trick; the inspector plays along. Ochs tries to pull his noble rank to no avail, claiming that "Mariandel" is under his protection. Faninal arrives and sends for Sophie to clear their names. Sophie arrives and asks Ochs to stop wooing her. Just as Ochs is completely befuddled and embarrassed, the Marschallin enters. The inspector recognises her, having previously served under her husband. The Marschallin sends the police and all the others away. Ochs still tries to claim Sophie for himself after realising the nature of the relationship shared by the Marschallin and Octavian/Mariandel. He even attempts to blackmail the Marschallin, but is ordered to leave gracefully. Salvaging what is left of his dignity, he leaves, pursued by bill collectors.
The Marschallin, Sophie and Octavian are left alone. The Marschallin recognizes that the day she so feared has come, as Octavian hesitates between the two women. In the emotional climax of the opera, the Marschallin gracefully releases Octavian, encouraging him to follow his heart and love Sophie. She then withdraws elegantly to the next room to talk with Faninal. As soon as she is gone, Sophie and Octavian run to each other's arms. Faninal and the Marschallin return to find the lovers locked in an embrace. After a few bittersweet glances to her lost lover, the Marschallin departs with Faninal. Sophie and Octavian follow after another brief but ecstatic love duet, and the opera ends with the page Mohammed running in to retrieve Sophie's dropped handkerchief, and racing out again after the departing nobility.
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, October 10, 7.30 pm
Prokofiev's SEMYON KOTKO
October (or November, depending on which calendar you're using) marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Prokofiev's opera, first performed before Stalin in the fateful year of 1940, tells a story of love, war and resistance in post-Bolshevik Russia. We're screening the acclaimed 2015 production by Kirov Opera in the Mariinsky Theatre, conducted by Valery Gergiev. "Gergiev’s interpretation is ardent and well paced, his orchestra is in fine fettle, and his soloists are of consistently high quality." - Gramophone
Click here to watch Sophie Koch as Octavian
and Mojca Erdmann as Sophie
in the Presentation of the Rose scene from Act Two
Krassimira Stoyanova as the Marschallin
and Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs
The Genesis of Der Rosenkavalier
While Strauss was still working on his Elektra, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, his librettist, wrote him concerning "the scenario for an opera, full of burlesque situations and characters, with lively action, pellucid almost like a pantomime .... It contains two big parts, one for baritone and another for a graceful girl dressed up as a man, à la [Geraldine] Farrar or Mary Garden. Period: the old Vienna under the Empress Maria Theresa."
Strauss began composing the untitled opera as quickly as the text was made available to him. On 4 May 1909, Strauss wrote Hofmannsthal, "All the characters are grand: drawn with clear outlines. Unfortunately, I'll need very good actors again; the ordinary operatic singers won't do."
What was born in Dresden on the 26th of January 1911 was an explosion of rich music, sometimes vulgar, sometimes playful, and clearly definitive of the Viennese period it represents. No one can doubt the brilliance of the score and the liveliness of the characterizations. Strauss wanted to name the opera "Ochs von Lerchenau" because he enjoyed the pompous but lovable character, but Hofmannsthal objected. It was Strauss's wife who allegedly put the differences over the title to rest: "Der Rosenkavalier" it became.
Eva von der Osten, who premièred the rôle of Octavian
(She also also sang Kundry in the first performance in England of Wagner's Parsifal.)
The first performance was the most successful of Strauss’ career. At first, critics didn’t understand the new work, but the public adored it. Dresden gave it more than 50 times that first year and had to install a post office in the theater to handle ticket requests. The German railway put on special trains from Berlin to Dresden: round trip fare and an orchestra seat for 16 and a half marks.
Ten days after that first performance, The New York Times devoted an entire page to the new opera under the headline “Richard Strauss Enters the Field of Comic Opera.” Readers were treated to photos of Alfred Roller’s costume designs and of characters on stage, three excerpts from the score, and several hundred words on the opera itself, as well as the furore it had created.
The morning of the première, Strauss was going over some last-minute details of the score with the conductor when suddenly they were interrupted by his wife, Pauline, who had arrived in town the evening before. “You’ve talked enough, Ricky, come along with me to Prager Strasse,” she ordered. “I have to buy something to put on my head.” Strauss obediently went along to Dresden’s most fashionable shopping district to shop for a hat. That evening Pauline took her place in her box wearing a spectacular gold turban. As one writer observed, it was “a victor’s crown, in every sense.”
An earlier Salzburg production
of Der Rosenkavalier, in the 1964 season with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic,
starring (as seen above, left to right) Willy Ferenz (Herr von Faninal),
Anneliese Rothenberger (Sophie),
Sena Jurinac (Octavian)
and Otto Edelmann (Baron Ochs)