Unity in variety
Models and preferences in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier shares the fate of so many masterpieces in that it is not unequivocally regarded as an aesthetic jewel but provokes many contradictory opinions. Some regard this opera as the zenith of the artistic partnership between the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the composer Richard Strauss. Other connoisseurs take the view that as regards their intentions and achievements the two artists were particularly distant from one another precisely when they were working on this piece. The correspondence during the creative process shows some evidence of this. However, as experience shows, there can also be productive misunderstandings. People also disagree on the literary value and dramaturgical structure of the libretto: on the one hand some praise it as a unique synthesis of old Austrian culture and style of living, on the other some criticise it for paving the way for clichés, nostalgically glorifying what is old-fashioned while claiming to be authentic.
Nevertheless admirers and critics agree on one thing: the score by Richard Strauss marks a transition in composition and the music of Der Rosenkavalier mediates, as it were, between two idols of its creator – Richard Wagner and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The same composer (and conductor) who took the chromaticism and dissonances of Tristan und Isolde or Parsifal to the limits of atonality in his Elektra, returns to simpler harmonic and melodic spheres in Der Rosenkavalier and works composed later. Apparently Strauss himself once stated that he would have sacrificed a considerable part of his own œuvre in return for a specific modulation by Mozart in one of the ensembles in his Don Giovanni.
The two great model composers are reflected even in the characters of Der Rosenkavalier, in their behaviour, indeed in their choice of words and this says something not least for the sensitivity and empathy of the librettist. Take Octavian, for instance, “known as Quinquin”, the “young man from a great house”. Baron Ochs describes him as “the boy aged seventeen” and as it is also a trouser role, he reminds us of the page Cherubino. He is the one who makes erotic advances to the women in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and in his passion does not stop even at the Countess in the midst of her marital crisis.
Not in Mozart’s opera but in the continuation of the drama by Beaumarchais La mère coupable we learn that the young man later became Countess Almaviva’s lover and that the liaison produced a son.
Wagner’s Tristan theme also has an influence on the subject. After the night of love with the Marschallin Octavian laments, “Why has day come? I do not want the day! What good is day! Then you belong to them all!” and we can recognise unmistakably behind this tirade the dialectic of light and darkness, the longing of the couple in Wagner’s drama after the night and their cursing of the day: “Hatred and detestation of the envious day” – “O sink down upon us, night of love”.
However, even a third model, this time from the lighter genre, comes to mind. Richard Strauss frequently enjoyed conducting Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauß and wrote about the composer: “For me, of all those blessed by God, Johann Strauß is the most charming purveyor of joy … What I particularly admire in Johann Strauß is his originality and instinctive talent … I regard him as one of the last who had excellent ideas”. Not only the waltz sequences, also some of the intricacies and masquerades in the plot remind us of the prototype of operetta. And the larger-than-life ladies’ man Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau is also somewhat reminiscent of the amusing figures in the lighter genre; puffed up with their own importance, they become blind to intrigue and promptly fall headlong into the trap. Could Der Rosenkavalier therefore be described as a special kind of operetta, of course a unique one made of platinum and set with jewels? After all, Hofmannsthal himself says, “The music of Ochs is not dreadful – it senses what is behind him. His faun-like face and the boyish face of Rofrano are merely alternating masks through which the same eye looks.”
Oswald Panagl
Richard Strauss
DER ROSENKAVALIER
New production
Conductor Semyon Bychkov · Peter Schneider • Stage director Robert Carsen • Stage and costume design Peter Pabst • Lighting design Robert Carsen · Peter van Praet • Chorus master Rupert Huber • Dramaturge Ian Burton
Die Feldmarschallin Fürstin Werdenberg Adrianne Pieczonka • Der Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau Franz Hawlata • Octavian Angelika Kirchschlager • Herr von Faninal Franz Grundheber • Sophie Miah Persson • Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin Ingrid Kaiserfeld • Valzacchi Jeffrey Francis • Annina Elena Batoukova • Ein Polizeikommissär Florian Boesch • Der Haushofmeister der Marschallin John Dickie • Haushofmeister bei Faninal Michael Roider • Ein Notar Peter Loehle • Ein Wirt Markus Petsch • Ein Sänger Piotr Beczala • Eine Modistin Aleksandra Zamoiska • Ein Tierhändler Eberhard F. Lorenz
Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus • Vienna Philharmonic
Premiere 6 August, 7 p.m.
Further performances 9, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 and 28 August, 6 p.m.
Grosses Festspielhaus
Telephone +43 (0) 662 8045-500
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Titel and Salzburg-Impressions © Thomas Klinger, Munich