User Reviews

Der Rosenkavalier is my personal favourite Strauss opera, and one of my favourites in general, especially for the final trio. I did like this Met production overall, but I consider the 1962, 1982, 1985 and 1994 performances a little better. The costumes are simply gorgeous, especially Fleming's, and the sets while not quite as sumptuous still have beauty to them. It also helps that the High Definition as is the case with all the Met productions shown within this series is fantastic.

Strauss' music is absolutely amazing. I admit there was a time when I didn't appreciate Strauss as much as I do now, I think his style is one that grows on you the more you hear it, but now due to Der Rosenkavalier and Four Last Songs I love his music and can't get enough of it. The orchestra do a wonderful job with this score, it plays with a very expressive and lush sound, which is what several passages of the opera needs. Edo De Waart, replacing James Levine, allows the music to have a flowing and unsentimental approach. I loved the tempo of the final trio, slow it was but it was also very nuanced.

Renee Fleming is superb as the Marschallin, It is an incredibly subtle and deeply felt performance, for me her Monologue on the inexorable passage of time was one of the highlights of the performance. Her singing is gorgeous as well, the creamy tone and vocal beauty is still there, but even more impressive was Fleming's ability to sing with such expression and nuance and especially to uncover multiple meaning in the Marschallin's sad albeit wise words.

Susan Graham I liked very much as Octavian. Maybe she was not quite masculine enough, but the performance is so involved, with her Octavian feisty and her chamber maid Mariandal charming, making the most of the characters' perceptive sayings and her vocal texture is warm, resonant and robust that I could forgive that. The presentation of the rose scene is a love at first sight sort of scene and is done so beautifully and endearingly.

Kristian Sigmundssen has a very rich voice, is very tall and imposing and is suitably boorish as Baron Ochs. Overall it is a very effective performance, and doesn't fall into the trap of being too much in caricature like it could have been, if missing the humanity that Moll and Halwata brought to the role. He does have genuine comic timing while never coming across as a clown in the pantomimic scenes, though the Annina and Valzacchi never quite match him.

Not so good is Christine Schafer as Sophie. She is beautiful and alluring, and I know from her Konstanze and Gilda that she has a very pretty and agile voice, but her singing can have the same problems I had hearing Diana Damrau in the role. Some of the high notes in the longer legato phrasing especially in the trio can sound shrill and she sounds sharp sometimes. Also, I do have to agree she does have a tendency to look a little too vacant. In terms of chemistry, I think there was definitely chemistry between Fleming and Graham, Schafer not so much.

I also think the role of Valzacchi is miscast and a reason why the scenes with him, Ochs and Annina have mixed results. I think this for two reasons. One is that for me he was too young to sing of Annina of his niece. The other is that in the scene where he restrains Octavian he is too small in stature, it makes that particular scene contrived. Thomas Allen fares much better though as Faninal, very well sung and acted. All in all, very good, especially for Fleming, the costumes and Graham. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Der Rosenkavalier is one of my favourite operas but I must admit to finding this production rather tedious. Librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal must have given very explicit stage directions since, in every version I have ever seen, the set is the same, the costumes are the same and all the details of the drama are identical. Perhaps this is why repeated viewings of this opera produce a feeling of ennui that I do not experience with other works.

The three female leads are, in theory, an ideal cast but collectively they lack chemistry. Renée Fleming is perfect, as you would expect, as the Marschallin. Christine Schaffer looks rather lost as Sophie. Susan Graham, as Octavian, does not convince, either as a man or dressed up as the maid Mariandel. I ought to add that my criticism applies only to their dramatic interpretations of the roles. The three musical high-spots of this opera: the Act 1 finale, the presentation of the rose and the Act 3 trio are meltingly beautiful. Unfortunately, on this occasion, the pantomime aspects of the opera with Baron Ochs, Valzacchi and Annina left me cold.

I started by indicating how sacrosanct this opera seems to be. I recently saw English National Opera's disastrous production of Lucrezia Borgia in which the trouser role of Orsini was played as a woman. This did not work at all but it did set me thinking that the time might be right for a gay production of Der Rosenkavalier. I cannot for the life of me see why the Marshallin's young lover should not be a woman, call her Octavia. It would still make sense for her to dress up as a maid to deceive Ochs and, as a joke, to cross-dress as a young knight to present the rose to Sophie. Just a thought.