Der Rosenkavalier, with a twist - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment back at the Queen Elizabeth Hall tomorrow (17/5) with Der Rosenkavalier, but with a twist. Not the opera but the film suite.  What film suite ? Richard Strauss wrote for the movies ? Yes !  In 1926, Robert Wiene, who had directed The Cabinett of Dr. Caligari , made a version of Der Rosenkavalier with the enthusiastic support of Richard Strauss himself.   Dr. Caligari  pioneered the Expressionist aesthetic.And   there was Richard Strauss, if not quite in the vanguard, certainly sympathetic.  This should come as no surprise, since he wrote Salomé. Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten. Nuts to the notion that Strauss was sugar and cream.  Wiene’s film was screened at the Dresden Opera House, where the original opera itself had premiered fifteen years before, underlining the connection between opera and the new art form of cinema.  Wiene's Der Rosenkavalier wasn't an "opera movie" in any modern sense of the word. It wasn't a film of the opera but a work of art in itself, with the opera as starting point.  Works of art exist for themselves : there's no law that they have to set originals as given, any more than that art should be history.  Please also see my article from 2012, Gay Salomé the 1923 silent movie based on the Salomé storyn that inspired not only Strauss but many others. 

The plot loosely follows the novel from which Hugo von Hofmannsthal  derived the libretto, with extra scenes like the battlefield on which the Feldmarschall rides to victory and an opera bouffe in a small theatre, where the principals watch their dilemma being acted out. Obviously, the music for the opera would not fit. In any case, what would be the point in a silent movie? Instead Strauss wrote a new soundtrack, based on an orchestra of 17 parts, which mixed extracts from the opera with snippets from  other works  including Arabella, Burleske, Till Eulenspeigel and  Also sprach Zarathustra. 

He  threw in bits of Wagner and Johann Strauss for further effect. Strauss himself conducted the blend live while the movie screened. How would today's opera snobs react?  They take themselves too seriously, methinks, because the Silent Rosenkavalier is a heady cocktail of good film and fun. It captures the savage satire while dressing it up with visuals so frothy they border on excess. This in itself is a dig at the materialistic culture that values frills, yet turns fresh young women into commodities in a cynical marriage marketplace. Swoon at the wigs and acres of lace, but this is no costume drama.

 

The technical film values are very high, as one would expect from the director of Dr Caligari (full download here) and Genuine the Vampire (more here). Scenes are carefully planned so they seem like tableaux in some elegant object of art, designed to distract from the grubbiness around it.  The Marschallin's boudoir suffocates in luxury: one imagines that any man kept like this would lose his masculinity. For all her wealth, the lady isn't happy. She sighs and uses exaggerated gestures and poses: Wiene is satirizing popular theatrical excess. Baron Ochs wears embroidered silks but is a boor. He somersaults, arms and legs akimbo like a broken puppet. Later, when Octavian challenges him to a duel, he collapses  though he's barely been scratched. The camera pans close up on his face and then his mouth, wide as a grotesque sculpture. We can almost hear the screaming.

The scenes where the Men of Property and their lawyers work out the marriage contract are brilliantly done. Backgrounds dissolve into darkness, so the rococco filigree of the costumes and wigs frame faces whose features twist in angular contortion. Outside, in the garden,
gigantic gryphons five metres high tower over the party goers. In contrast, the actress who plays Sophie expresses her personality with
great sensitivity. Sometimes she looks like a nine year old, too naive to take in what's happening. Her jutting chin and turned up nose indicate her petulance.The rich folk cram into a tiny theatre in the Mehlmarkt to watch a play about "the Proud Father and his humiliation",
narrated in rhyming folk poetry. The Marschallin plans a masked ball. Great crowd scenes. Mystery letters direct Octavian and the Field
Marshal (straight from the battle) to meet a woman in the grotto of Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. The last reel of the film is missing but the
inconclusive ending isn't a problem. We know what's going to happen. The last frame shows the little black boy, with his plumed turban,
drawing a curtain and gesturing silence. 

 

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is conducted by Geoffrey Paterson with Thomas Kemp as arrtistic director and Charlotte Beament, who will be singing Strauss songs.   The South Bank has been doing silent movies with sound for decades (Think Carl Davis) but this time the music is autentic original and there's no film, as such.  Use your imagination or watch the silent movie, which has been screened several times in recent years.  I wrote my article Rosenkavalier bei Caligari in 2014. But the OAE performance should make us think, about Strauss, and his interests in the avant garde and the idea of film as art form.  Me ? I'll be at St John's Smith Square for  Charpentier Histoires sacrées with Ensemble Correspondances, directed by Sébastien Daucé and Vincent Huguet.

Der Rosenkavalier BBC Prom 6

Glyndebourne's Der Rosenkavalier came to BBC Prom 6. I was at the premiere (read my review here), captivated by Lars Woldt's unusual but singularly perceptive Baron Ochs. What a pity the Baron Ochs of the media were more focused on whether Octavian was sexually attractive to them, "either as man or woman". Its not up to them. If Ochs is fooled, that's his problem.  (Read my analysis of the interpretation of the role HERE)

The first act of Der Rosenkavalier usually gets most attention because it's luscious. But Strauss satirizes convention and superficial appearances. In the final act, Baron Ochs is shown for the boor he is. It's Octravian who sets him up. At the very end of the opera, the Marschallin renounces her hopes and blesses the young lovers. Quite pointedly, Strauss suggests that wallowing in the past is not good. In the new lies the future.  After Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier might seem a stylistic step backwards, but don't be fooled. Strauss references Mozart but also throws in sly barbs at the Strausses of Vienna, who turned the Mozart ideal into banal pap. The famous tenor aria is cute, but it's commercial, a consumer product like new clothes and hairdos. Baron Ochs likes music, too, but the music he likes is barely above the level of pop.

Just as we should beware of sugar, we should beware of too much sugar-coating in Der Rosenkavalier. Strauss's music and von Hofmannsthal's text savage mindless convention. Richard Jones respects the composers's intention far more astutely than the Ochsen of this world would ever comprehend.

At the Proms, the Glyndebourne Rosenkavalier was not staged. Lars Woldt was unwell, replaced by Franz Hawlata, who sang Ochs for Andris Nelsons in Birmingham last month,. I've loved Hawlata since he was a colleague of Jonas Kaufmann in the stable at the Bayerisches Staatsoper in Munich.  Hawlata's voice is more resonant than Woldt's, more closer to the ox-like heft with which the part is often done. Although I missed Woldt's snake-like wiliness, hearing Hawalata was compensation enough.

Strauss's fondness for sopranos at the height of their fame but almost, not quite, past their prime ensures that the Marschallin is usually cast for a Big Name, thus ensuring box office attention. But strictly speaking, between the first act and the final scenes, The Marschallin doesn't really have much to do, though what she does is pretty remarkable. Kate Royal is a perennial favourite ith the Glyndebourne crowd, and perfectly adequate, but shes not in the ranks of, say, Schwarzkopf, Isoskoski or divas in their class. Still, shes beautiful, whether in evening gown or nude suit, and sang with a nice wry touch, accessing the spirit of the opera with intelligence.

In many ways, Der Rosenkavalier predicates on Octavian, who may only be 17 but has all the nerve and verve of a teenager who's just discovered sex (and cross-dressing). Again, Strausss' music poses a conundrum. Octavian is an extremely demanding part, interpretively as well as vocally. No 17-year-old could do it. Much better that a singer approaches it with youthful exuberance. Tara Erraught brings genuine freshness to the part, singing with sprightly agility. I like the roundness in her timbre, which suits the part. So what if Strauss mentioned that he'd like Octavian to be "willowy". His music suggests otherwise. Anyone familiar with Strauss should expect cryptic clues and contradiction. Erraught is only 27, so she's still to reach her full potential. One day, I suspect, she'll very good indeed. Certainly she impresses German audiences, who know a thing or two. In Birmingham, Alice Coote sang the role: Erraught isn't quite up to Coote's standard, but she could well get there, and deserves respect from those who care about music.

I wish I had been to Birmingham to hear Andris Nelsons conduct Der Rosenkavalier with the CBSO.  Everyone I know who was there loved what he did. Robin Ticciati has only just started his tenure at Glyndebourne. The premere I attended was in fact his first formal day on the job, so to speak. I loved his work with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He's also a Glyndebourne insider, a regular conductor of  Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra.  In Der Rosenkavalier , Strauss throws challenges at conductors, too, to test whether they can grasp the tough-minded irony beneath the frothy sugar frosting.  That takes a feel for originality and even quirkiness, which is why, for me, Carlos Kleiber takes the cake. Ticciati has potential but he needs more self confidence.

Louise Alder sang Sophie, more developed and richer  than Teodora Gheorghiu at Glyndebourne. Michael Krauss sang Faninal. Full cast list here. Sarah Fahie directed the Proms semi-staging. She directed movement in the Glyndebourne production, every gesture  expressing character. Definitely a director to watch out for.

Claire Seymour's reveiw  is in Opera Today

photo : Tristram Kenton, courtesy Glyndebourne Festival Opera

For herds of Ochsen - Butch Hair Wax

Lucky tigers use Butch Hair Wax! Appearances are bluff. The Octavian Rosenkavalier Glyndebourne furore is NOT about bad reviews, which in themselves are no big deal. It's about BULLYING.  Even the gender dynamics is a side issue.  Are London music critics  any more musical than noblemen are noble?  These reviews were so lazy they weren't worth bothering about. But the self justifications are more revealing because they show how these minds work.  

No, a review isn't "the truth", it's opinion. There's a difference, except to those so arrogant that they think the world pivots around them. And any opinion is only valid insofar as it's well thought through.  Good writing involves analysis and respect for the art, and for others.


Baron Ochs comes from a feudal estate where his word is law. He abuses power because everyone assumes that's OK because it cannot be questioned.  Those who hold power by default rather than by ability fall back on tactics like demeaning and trivializing the damage they've done.  Which makes the damage even worse. Octavian and the Marschallin see through  Baron Ochs. Perhaps that's why these critics picked on Tara Erraught, though there was so much else to write about. In the real world, complacency rules: hence blind subservience to authority. If only life did imitate art and the values of Der Rosenkavalier were  taken seriously.

Please see my piece "Singers, looks and art  - who is Octavian?" about the many ways Octavian could be portrayed (not just one!)

Singers, looks and art - who is Octavian ?

Grand furore about Octavian  at Glyndebourne's Der Rosekavalier (read my review HERE).  At right, the first ever Octavian, Eva von der Osten, in 1911. Short, fat, dark and dumpy.  She got even more so as she grew older. Strauss thought she was fine. So what's  all the fuss about  now?  Strauss didn't describe what Octavian looked like. All we do know is that Octavian is young, enthusiastic and very horny, in the way young men who have just discovered sex are horny. Basically, Octavian's a puppy, the kind that will mount any leg available. So why NOT a bit of puppy fat ? It's totally in character.

How can anyone hear Der Rosenkavalier and not realize "Things don't have to be the way we think they should be?" Tara Erraught's got an interesting voice - bright and agile, with robust, solid depth. Erraught's a very good actress, who creates an ebullient Octavian, bursting with high spirits . Hers is a totally valid characterization, because we know from the score that Octavian's not averse to high jinks, cross-dressing and madcap japes. 
Kate Royal looks divinely beautiful, so even if she doesn't sing the role as perfectly as other Marschallins in the past, she's gorgeous to look at. Erraught's Octavian provides contrast. Who hasn't seen couples that look odd together.  Erraught and Teodora Gheorghiu's Sophie look right for each other, both naive and gawky. Which is precisely the point of Der Rosenkavalier. The Marschallin knows that Octavian is made for Sophie and not for her.It's not for us to decide otherwise.

Opera is theatre with singing. It is not enough that a singer looks good but can't sing or act.  Good singers can express emotions with their voices and gestures. And singers don't operate in a vacuum.  Richard Jones chose this cast well because they interact well together.  It's also not enough to sit through a performance without thinking how things relate to each other and  above all, WHY. But maybe that's too much like hard work.Never, ever judge an opera on the basis of still photos Passive listening is the curse of TV. It shouldn't apply to opera. The saddest thing about this furore is that so many people are rushing to judgement who don't know the performance, the production, the singers , the context or the background. Or the opera itself, for that matter. Erraught is young, but she has potential. It would be a crime if her career is derailed by the visually and musically illiterate.

Above another photo from the Dresden premiere, which shows that Octavian was about the same size as Sophie. Where do people get the idea that Octavian has to be tall? The Marschallin likes him because he's young and good in bed. Haha!  PS  Strauss was a man of the theatre who knew that opera is illusion. A woman in her 30's or more doesn't look like a teenage boy. Which says a lot about Baron Ochs and the Ochses of this world. Appearance isn't all!  Strauss could have written the part for a boy, bu he didn't.   

Bagged by Baron Ochs Glyndebourne Der Rosenkavalier

Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier opened Glyndebourne's 80th anniversary season, dedicated to the memory of George Christie, who created country house opera as we know it today. "My father loved Der Rosenkavalier", said Gus Christie."I think he would have liked this production", he added with a wink, "Though he would, as always, have had a lot to say about it". He's right. The more we care about an opera, the more we get from fresh perspectives. This 2014 Glyndebourne Rosenkavalier is provocative because it focuses on Baron Ochs and what he stands for. Richard Strauss polishes surfaces so glossy that we're dazzled, blinded to the sinister depths that lurk within. But think of meaning. The Marschallin lives in luxury, but she's not fooled. Like Sophie, she herself was traded in marriage like a consumer product. Baron Ochs symbolizes a system that places more value in crass commerce than on human values.  

The Marschallin, Kate Royal, appears in a nude suit, rising from her bath like Venus. It's audacious, but absolutely to the point. She's flaunting her wares. Her bedroom is invaded by merchants, each flogging some product. One is an Italian Singer (Andrej Dunaev). His song is sweet but banal. Strauss is sending up art calculated to please the marketplace. Baron Ochs (Lars Woldt) is right in. He's come to buy a bride, but he'll grope any woman available, even if the "woman" is a man.. Only when the Marschallin is alone can she be herself. As Kate Royal sings her last lines at the end of the First Act, the yellow and grey designer wrapping paper decor is transformed by light into silver and gold.

Octavian (Tara Erraught) presents the silver rose to Sophie (Teodora Gheorghiu).but the ritual goes wrong. They fall in love. The audience howled with laughter when the lovers locked foreheads and rocked together in unison, but the naivety contrasts well with the devious machinations going all round them.  Humour is a key into Richard Strauss. This Richard Jones production is lively but it contributes greatly to this Richard Strauss anniversary year because it shows how Strauss uses wit as a weapon against mindless conformity. Der Rosenkavalier isn't superficial,  it's satire. There's glamour, and romance, but it has a core of solid silver.

If there's a moral in Der Rosenkavalier, it might be "Things don't have to be the way we think they should be".  The Marschallin gives up her dream of love so Octavian and Sophie can have a future. She concocts a plot to expose Ochs for what he is: ox by name and nature. Ochs is lured to an inn so garish that anyone with real taste would be screaming to escape from it. Ochs's favourite song "Ohne mich" is a tune anyone can hum, but that doesn't make it good music. He's also easily fooled by fake peasant costumes. Och's knows what he likes, but that's the problem. He doesn't take any one else into consideration.  Lars Woldt's performance is outstanding, one of the sharpest Ochs I can remember offhand.  He's not a comic parody but all too believable. This type inhabits all walks of life, including the opera world. Woldt defines each word with precision, observing the changes in pitch with clear deliberation. Woldt acts well too, moving with animal agility. Ochs is not a buffoon but a man who gets his way by selfishness and cunning. That's why he's so dangerous. He knows how to use the system against those less ruthless.There aren't enough Marschallins around.

The words "Papa! Papa!" ring with shriill accusation. When Ochs is trapped, the stage fills with those whom he's harmed or could harm if he could. Strauss operas are often "busy" with numerous characters whose moment may not last long but who are integral to the plot. In this production, even non-verbal parts like Ochs's eldest son and the black servant are given "voices" that define their role perceptively. Ochs's son can never inherit, and the black servant can't dream of winning the Marschallin, but they deserve dignity, too.  Big on stage ensembles pose problems in  any staging. Here, Jones and his Movement Director Sarah Favie choreograph the interactions between those on stage and the sounds from the pit  with such detail that it feels that the score is literally coming to life.  Robin Ticciati's first performance in his new role was somewhat tentative in places, but in the last act everything came together, and the music shone in glorious savagery.

Given the many  Der Rosenkavalier productions of the past that have shaped our memories, performances are good all round. Kate Royal, a perennial house favourite, won great applause. She's so beautiful she seems almost too idealized for the part, but I liked the wry grit with which she sang her final benediction to Octavian and Sophie.Tara Erraught's Octavian was robustly acted with earthy glee. HERE IS MY MORE DETAILED TAKE ON ERRAUGHT'S INTELLIGENT OCTAVIAN. Jones developed Sophie with more personality than the part often receives, so Teodora Gheorghiu could sing it with charm.  Glyndebourne's budget doesn't run to megastars so lesser roles are often extremely well cast.  Michael Krauss's Faninal was extremely well presented - nice, firm singing and poise. Christopher Gillett and Helene Schneiderman sang Valzacchi and Annina with great character. Robert Wörle and Scott Conner sang The Innkeeper and the Police Commissioner. Even smaller parts were thought through carefully and presented with conviction. Richard Jones's style (with designs by Paul Steinberg and Nicky Gillibrand) isn't usually my taste, but his is a production filled with well thought out detail and definition. Ochs might not like it, but I and most of the Glyndebourne audience got it.

This review also appears in Opera Today

photos : Bill Cooper, courtesy Glyndebourne Festival  Opera

PS  In some scenes, Ochs is wearing typical traditional clothing worn in the countryside, even for the upper classes. It's not specific to Bavaria. It just shows he's provincial. Lerchenau is in the sticks - "Lerch" as in Lark. In modern parlance, he's a twit from Lark Rise!

Silent Rosenkavalier bei Dr Caligari

A silent version of Der Roskenkavalier by the director of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. In 1926, Robert Wiene made a version of Der Rosenkavalier with the enthusiastic support of Richard Strauss himself. The film was screened at the Dresden Opera House, where the opera itself had premiered fifteen years before. It wasn't an "opera movie" in any modern sense of the word. 

The plot follows the novel from which Hugo von Hofmannsthal  derived the libretto, with extra scenes like the battlefield on which the Feldmarschall rides to victory and an opera bouffe in a small theatre, where the principals watch their dilemma being acted out. Obviously, the music for the opera would not fit. In any case, what would be the point in a silent movie? Instead Strauss wrote a new soundtrack, based on an orchestra of 17 parts, which mixed extracts from the opera with snippets from other works  including Arabella, Burleske, Till Eulenspeigel and  Also sprach Zarathustra. He  threw in bits of Wagner and Johann Strauss for further effect. Strauss himself conducted the blend live while the movie screened. How would today's opera snobs react?  They take themselves too seriously, methinks, because the Silent Rosenkavalier is a heady cocktail of good film and fun. It captures the savage satire while dressing it up with visuals so frothy they border on excess. This in itself is a dig at the materialistic culture that values frills, yet turns fresh young women into commodities in a cynical marriage marketplace. Swoon at the wigs and acres of lace, but this is no costume drama.

The technical film values are very high, as one would expect from the director of Dr Caligari (full download here) and Genuine the Vampire (more here). Scenes are carefully planned so they seem like tableaux in some elegant object of art, designed to distract from the grubbiness around it.  The Marschallin's boudoir suffocates in luxury: one imagines that any man kept like this would lose his masculinity. For all her wealth, the lady isn't happy. She sighs and uses exaggerated gestures and poses: Wiene is satirizing popular theatrical excess. Baron Ochs wears embroidered silks but is a boor. He somersaults, arms and legs akimbo like a broken puppet. Later, when Octavian challenges him to a duel, he collapses  though he's barely been scratched. The camera pans closeup on his face and then his mouth, wide as a grotesque sculpture. We can almost hear the screaming.

The scenes where the Men of Property and their lawyers work out the marriage contract are brilliantly done. Backgrounds dissolve into darkness, so the rococco filigree of the costumes and wigs frame faces whose features twist in angular contortion. Outside, in the garden, gigantic gryphons five metres high tower over the party goers. In contrast, the actress who plays Sophie expresses her personality with great sensitivity. Sometimes she looks like a nine year old, too naive to take in what's happening. Her jutting chin and turned up nose indicate her petulance.The rich folk cram into a tiny theatre in the Mehlmarkt to watch a play about "the Proud Father and his humiliation", narrated in rhyming folk poetry. The Marschallin plans a masked ball. Great crowd scenes. Mystery letters direct Octavian and the Field Marshal (straight from the battle) to meet a woman in the grotto of Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. The last reel of the film is missing but the inconclusive ending isn't a problem. We know what's going to happen. the last frame shows the little black boy, with his plumed turban, drawing a curtain and gesturing silence.

The strangest Rosenkavalier?

A reader sent me a DVD of Der Rosenkavalier from Zürich in 2004. "Watch out for the kitchen," he said. Kitchen? The second act, bei Faninal, takes place in the kitchen. Sophie is awaiting the Silver Rose, which symbolizes her induction into the nobility. It's a big deal event, as Der Rosenkavalier arrives in great pomp and splendour to present a what is, after all, not your average supermarket bouquet. Of course she's in her grubbies, cooking.

In principle, mis–en-scène isn't a problem if there's a purpose to it. That's how drama works, it pricks us from complacency. Try as I could, though, I couldn't understand this. Perhaps Sophie is Cinderella, plucked from the scullery to marry the prince, after all she isn't bluebloode. as Ochs keeps reminding us. On the other hand, Faninal is rich, which is part of the attraction. She's not kitchen class like Ochs's other women. Sophie wants to be humble, but hiding in a kitchen cupboard doesn't do it.

Then the crucial moment where Octavian and Sophie lay eyes on each other. The music shows it's magic. It's probably not that easy to show erotic chemistry between two straight actresses but Malin Hartelius and Vesselina Kasarova as S and O really don't look comfortable. Opera singers are primarily singers, and most need to be convinced to act well. Here they seem to have been coached for pantomime acting. Raised eyebrows, grimaces for grins, tics etc. On stage you can get away with that. Three hours of filmed close-ups kills the point. Poor women, I thought, it's not their fault they look like Marcel Marceeau.

Perhaps the director (Sven-Erik Bechtolf) took Strauss at face value when he said the opera was just face, music for comedy. Der Rosenkavalier is loved because audiences love marzipan and icing. But beneath the surface there's a story that isn't sweet. It would be interesting to see a production that emphasized the dichotomy between outward display and inward decay. It would shock the marzipan set but at least it would be faithful to the score. Doesn't anyone get it, that this rose is beautiful and strongly scented. but a total fake? A lot like many marriages.

This production looks nice enough, elegant, clean lines and huge windows. Even the phantom trees in the Marschallin's bedroom aren't a bad idea because she is leafless and barren, like the trees are and visually they bring the "outside" indoors, which is what keeps happening throughout the opera. The principals are always being intruded on, by lackeys, merchants, shysters, more lackeys and petitioners, and of course, kids crying "Papa!" It adds to the dramatic tension, and the sense that this orderly aristocratic world is always on the verge of being submerged from beyond. In this production, the servants at the inn are insects, with insect heads. Crawlers, geddit, vermin? Actually, it works rather well and adds to the humour. But details like this aren't enough to save the whole.

Nina Stemme is the Marschallin, so expect luscious singing. She looks far too young to be convincing. Few divas will stand for being made to look unglamorous, but Stemme's acting seems curiously uninvolved, particularly against the antics the others are forced to get up to. Alfred Muff's Baron Ochs is almost a relief in comparison. His voice isn't as lovely as hers but he comes over as a lovable buffoon, an ageing rock star perhaps whose "wife doesn't understand him, so it's alright". Dirty, silly, but not menacing, he's John Cleese in damask.

On the other hand, Franz Welser-Möst gets nice, clean playing from the orchestra and the interludes are nice to watch, as well as hear. Thanks for lending me this DVD. I'm glad I saw it but didn't pay bog money for it. What a wasted opportunity this production was, some good ideas, but overall pulling back from the deeper implications. This has made me appreciate John Schlesinger's production at Covent Garden even more. There's a lot in the sets there that evoke good ideas and shouldn't be lost. Maybe after 25 years. someone could sit down and think, look at what we've got here. How do we bring it out anew? PLEASE see my OTHER posts on Der Rosenkavalier by using the search or labels on right.

Gilt and guilt - Rosenkavalier past and present

Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House is getting flak because the sets look antiquated. Personally I think it adds to the mood of nostalgia, the idea that what is past can never return. So for me the ROH Rosenkavalier is beautiful, not because of the rococco decor but because the set evokes something deeper and more poignant than ornament. Indeed, gilt and guilt would be a better mindset because the opera is a gilded critique of society and material values.
I've pulled up a few clips of Rosenkavaliers past for comparison.

In her gilded cage the Marschallin reflects on the way people are horse traded like objects. If she can help it, she's going to do some good for others, like saving die kleine Sophie from a horrible fate. Pity the film quality is so poor, but look at Schwarzkopf's acting !

This is a much clearer film. Sophie is beside herself with excitement because she's overwhelmed by the ceremony of being presented with a silver rose. No way an innocent girl can see past the glamour : one good thing about the ROH Schlesinger production is that a light is shone on Octavian as he enters - he's a shining knight, like Lohengrin. Though he doesn't know it. he's come to save Sophie/Elsa. Strauss and his audiences might have got that reference. What's annoying about the Salzburg set (whole film is available) is that, while pretty it's not bright. Look at the tack black figures on the wall, not baroque silhouettes but something you'd find in a 50's cafe. And the floor in Faninal's mansion. Live, the audience wouldn't have seen the full impact, but a floor as elaborate and dominant as that doesn't add to the narrative, unless it's a very veiled reference to the oppressiveness of wealth. I don't think so as it's not borne out by much else. So Schlesinger at the ROH looks better and better.

And now the final trio, where The Marschallin gives up her last chance of happiness so that Octavian and Sophie might build a relationship based on love, not avarice. This time, the set is good because the tavern looks grubby and decrepit. It's a place used for sordid transactions, dishonesty, selfishness. Horrible as it might look, though, spiritually it's not so different from Faninal's palace, or Baron Och's illustrious ancestry. And the squalor makes the Marschallin shine out even more. She's the shining knight this time, lit up by the glory of her good soul. So who's the Rosenkavalier after all? Maybe it really is her, rather than Octavian, because it's she who makes their union possible. They'll end up like dust like everyone else but at least for a moment, there's hope. I'd love to see the ROH Rosenkavalier revived again, but with more focused direction and tighter performances. Life can be breathed into the old thing yet, just as the Marschallin brings new life to Sophie and Octavian. PS Please see what I wrote about the revival of Elektra (Charles Edwards) earlier this year - muich better than the original !

Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House

In dark, damp December we need good cheer, and Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House delivers colour and spectacle. Indeed, it's not entirely a disadvantage that the staging is antique. Obviously the costumes (Maria Björnsen) are new-made, and the sets (William Dudley) have been refreshed, but the air of musty decay is deliberate, because it's an essential part of the narrative.

The passage of time haunts Der Rosenkavalier. The Marschallin knows she'll never be young again, and accedes to a new generation. Strauss depicts a Vienna that by 1911 was about to be swept away. Even Octavian and Sophie have long gone. At its 1984 premiere, John Schlesinger's production was state of the art, so seeing it after 25 years is like looking back into the past. What would Christmas be without reminiscence and fond memories?

There are those who think operas should be museum pieces, preserved forever at the moment of birth. In real life, though, every revival is a new work because the people involved are coming new to it. Even if they've sung the roles many times before, the specific demands of performance create a new dynamic. Directing revivals isn't easy, because everyone has to be inspired all over again.

Soile Isokoski is one of the greatest Strauss singers of our times. Her experience and reflective, emotional depth could have made this an exceptionally well-rounded Marschallin. Isokoski's voice has a smoky, wistful timbre that captures the Marschallin's true personality. For whatever reason, in this production, Isokoski's subtle approach seemed sidelined. Because so much is going on in the second act, it's easy to forget how the Marschallin permeates the opera even when she's not present. She was kleine Resi, just as Sophie is now. What happens in Faninal's mansion may well have happened in her paternal home. She may not appear again until the end, but it's "her" story, reprised anew.

Because the production is so high on visual values, the balance shifts to Octavian, who is, after all the Rosenkavalier, the personification of youth and the future. Sophie Koch is good, even her slight weaknesses play well into the character's immaturity. More gusto in the "dialect" passages would have been welcome, connecting to the social satire in the plot. Who knows what Octavian might become when he grows older? Lucy Crowe's Sophie is well acted, bringing out the spoilt brat parts of the role. Octavian could end up eaten alive. Strauss had Pauline, so he knew very well that in real life marriages don't follow the "rules" of society.

Indeed, there's a strong element of subversion in this opera, often overlooked in the frills and frou-frou. Strauss sends up the social order, parodying Viennese waltzes, depicting the baseness of aristocratic rule. Peter Rose's Baron Ochs is suitably brutish. Even a nobleman as debased as he would have been marginally literate, but von Hoffmansthal points out his illiteracy twice, so it won't be missed. Strauss builds similar crudity into the music, which Rose might have made more grotesque, but it wouldn't have worked against Kiril Petrenko's fairly civil and well-behaved conducting. It was good to hear two other Grandees of British opera, Thomas Allen and Graham Clark, as Faninal and Valzacchi.

This revival (directed by Andrew Sinclair) won't go down as one of the great moments in perfomance history, because it lacks the fire and pain that lies in the score. Nonetheless, it's still immeasurably better value than the usual level of "festive fare" on offer at this time of the year. Even if it's muted, it's still a decent artistic experience. Please also see production pictures and review on Opera Today.

PLEASE SEE my other posts on this Rosenkavalier, including a defence of the 1984 design. Also look up Elektra - also a revival but better than the premiere

Rosenkavalier memories

Tonight I was at Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House. What memories it brought back ! Many years ago I had a very dear friend called Elizabeth, who loved this opera passionately, in fact it was she who helped me appreciate its sterling qualities. She developed cancer and one day her husband wrote me to say she was gravely ill in hospital. She had a favourite young conductor, so I wrote to him out of the blue. "You don't know me from Adam but you do know E."

A few days later I had a delighted message from E, saying how she'd felt gloomy when suddenly there was a delivery, a huge bouquet of roses from the conductor who'd tracked down her hospital number. He knew her love of Rosenkavalier, so he ordered silver-pink roses, with silver trim. It made her day. She eventually did pass away, but she's never been forgotten. One day the conductor came to London and I managed to see him. "Do you remember?" I asked him and he beamed. He and I never met before or since, but we share good memories.photo credit Jess Keast

Swords? Cross-dressing? Marriage? On a completely different note here is a clip from a Cantonese movie. Two girls are fighting because they both want to marry a young scholar. Actually, he's a woman dressed as a man. "He" is Yam kimfai, one of the greatest of all Cantonese opera stars, whose speciality was singing male roles. Usually it was classical things and opera, but she also played cross-dressing roles in drama and comedy - including one movie where she's (a male) tutor to a rebellious kid and teaches him to like studying. The kid? Twelve-year-old Bruce Lee.

How to sing Lieder - Lehmann

What makes a good Lieder singer ? It's lots more than the voice, but the way the singer conveys meaning and music. Here is a clip of Lotte Lehmann giving a masterclass in 1953. The song is Brahms's Sonntag. Love that refrain:

Das tausendschöne Jungfräulein,
  Das tausendschöne Herzelein,
  Wollte Gott, wollte Gott, ich wär' heute bei ihr!

She's in her 70's, her voice reduced to a guttural growl, but so what ? She "sings" the meaning, the spirit of the song. Suddenly we don't see a middle aged matron but the "persona" in the song. The young man is in love with a nice, pure girl whom he's seen outside her door, and then on her way to church. Obviously no hanky panky or overt flirtation - she might not even know who he is ! They may never even have spoken. It's very inward. But he's so much in love, the intensity shines through the formal simplicity. There's a set of DVDs by VAI of Lehmann's masterclasses for sale, so you can enjoy more of this.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WHyXlpeCmyw


And then she shows how to sing the Marschallin