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OperaNotes Review
Metropolitan Opera House
March 18, 2005
By Charlene Frank
Der Rosenkavalier
Music:
Richard Strauss
Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Conductor:
Donald Runnicles
Production: Nathaniel Merrill
Set and Costume Design:
Robert O'Hearn
Stage Director:
Bruce Donnell
Cast:
Marschallin:
Angela Denoke
Octavian:
Susan Graham
Baron Ochs: Peter Rose
Sophie:
Laura Aikin
Faninal:
Håkan Hagegård
Italian Singer:
Matthew Polenzani
Wonderful evening at the Metropolitan Opera. I hadn't been there in a couple of months and it is so great to be back in that beautiful, big house with the giant stage and the giant talent. And giant it was, beginning the set and costume design. At the end of the standing ovation my friend said that she wished the costume designer could come up for a bow, and she was right. Robert O'Hearn, I extend to you a virtual ovation.
And while we're at it, why not give a virtual ovation to the librettist. Many years ago someone told me that the words in a Strauss opera are a very important part of the music, and that I should read the libretto (or read the Met Titles) especially when the librettist is Hugo von Hofmannsthal. I thought about this tonight because although the music was absolutely beautiful, the words too were very important.
Der Rosenkavalier, premiered in Dresden in 1911, and two years later at the Metropolitan Opera. In it's early days it had its critics, some saying there was too much raunchy sexuality, some saying it was too much of fond look-back on the Golden Age of the late 1700's. But to most Der Rosenkavalier looked back to a time when things were not coming apart around them with nostalgia. You should remember, this is at a time when Nazism was beginning in Germany, and the first World War was in the near horizon. I'm sure it was the waltzes that laid any dissension to rest. How could anyone not love the waltzes? .
In brief, this opera is about what was and what is. It is about stepping aside gracefully and with dignity when it is time for the new and the young move in, not because you are finished, but because time keeps moving and everything changes. At the same time it is about the buffoonery and selfishness of thinking that you are bigger and more important than these changes that will occur with or without you.
The cast was glorious. Angela Denoke's (Marschallin) soprano was like silk floating throughout the house. The grace of everything that must step aside was wrapped up in Ms. Denoke's character and in her voice. By the end of the first act, as she sang about knowing that sometime soon she would be replaced in the heart of her young lover Octavian by someone younger and more beautiful, with sad wonder at how this could happen, how age could have snuck up on her when she is still the same person; my heart ached as she sang I am still the same person. Her character was only 32 years old, but it was her first realization of how time was changing, how she was changing, and what was to be. I looked around knowing that most of the people sitting around me must also have the same ache in their heart. I am still the same person.
Octavian is one of mezzo-soprano Susan Graham's signature roles, and the reason was obvious. She excels. She is the beautiful young boy, oozing with sexuality and passion, torn between his older lover (who he loves and adores) and his new young love Sophie (Laura Aikin). Ms. Aiken was delightful as the young woman set to marry the old and dreadfully lecherous Baron Ochs , perfectly performed by Peter Rose.
Everything is brought together in the dazzling third act. The beautiful waltz at a point where beauty is about to change.