(The Knight of the Rose or The Rose-Bearer), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.; . Hofmannsthal's friend Count Harry Kessler helped in creating the plot, a conclusion based on entries in Kessler's diaries (). mentions Kessler's role but only credits Hofmannsthal for the libretto. It is loosely adapted from Louvet de Couvrai's novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas and Molière's comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. It was first performed at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on 26 January 1911 under the direction of Max Reinhardt,. The producer in Dresden was considered inadequate and Strauss sent Reinhardt to supervise and carry out his ideas, although Reinhardt did not receive any credit in the programme. with Ernst von Schuch conducting. Until the premiere, the working title was Ochs auf Lerchenau. (The choice of the name Ochs is not accidental, as "Ochs" means "ox", which describes the Baron's manner.)
The opera has four main characters: the aristocratic Marschallin; her 17-year-old lover, Count Octavian Rofrano; known as Quinquin, her brutish cousin Baron Ochs; and Ochs's prospective fiancée, Sophie von Faninal, the daughter of a rich bourgeois. At the Marschallin's suggestion, Octavian acts as Ochs's Rosenkavalier by presenting a ceremonial silver rose to Sophie. But Octavian and Sophie fall in love on the spot, and soon devise a comic intrigue to extricate Sophie from her engagement, with help from the Marschallin, who then yields Octavian to Sophie. Though a comic opera, the work incorporates weighty themes (particularly through the Marschallin's character arc), including infidelity, aging, sexual predation, and selflessness in love.
Der Rosenkavalier is notable for showcasing the female voice, as its protagonists (light lyric soprano Sophie, mezzo-soprano Octavian, and the mature dramatic soprano Marschallin) are written to be portrayed by women, who share several duets as well as a trio at the opera's emotional climax. Some singers have performed two or even all three of these roles over the course of their careers.
There are many recordings of the opera and it is regularly performed.
Composition
Richard Strauss first met Hugo von Hofmannsthal in 1899 in Berlin. Strauss was subsequently impressed by Hofmannsthal's play Elektra (1903), and adapted it into an opera that premiered on 25 January 1909. During that process, they agreed to collaborate on a new project that would be more comedic in tone. After Strauss rejected Hofmannsthal's comedy Christinas Heimreise and the plays of Molière yielded little fruit, Hofmannsthal visited Harry Graf Kessler in Weimar. Over the course of a few days in February 1909, Hofmannsthal and Kessler drafted a scenario inspired by a 1907 operetta that Kessler had seen in Paris: L'Ingénu libertin by playwright Louis Artus and composer Claude Terrasse.
Strauss approved the plot outline and work began in earnest. Act I's text was written in February–March 1909, with its music finished in May. Through the summer, Strauss composed Act II, collaborating with Hofmannsthal to add more comedy and plot twists. By spring 1910, the first two acts were printed and Hofmannsthal had finished the libretto. Strauss finished the music of the final act on 26 September 1910.
The first production was slated to be directed by the Dresden Opera's Georg Toller, who had staged the world premiere of Strauss's Elektra, but the creators had subsequently been impressed by the Vienna production of Elektra with sets designed by Alfred Roller (director of the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule) and lost faith in Toller. Strauss and Hofmannsthal commissioned Roller to design sets and costumes for Der Rosenkavalier and arranged for his designs to be published in an illustrated prompt book that all productions would be obligated to use. They also controversially recruited Max Reinhardt to assist with rehearsals as a "shadow director" or replacement for Toller, although Toller remained the sole credited director.
After the dark and dramatic style of Elektra, Strauss tried to use lighter music with a more lyrical style in this opera. Therefore, the composer mixed Romantic orchestration with elements inspired by classical Viennese musical traditions. This was a distinctive feature of the score, in addition to using frequent Viennese waltz rhythms. This is anachronistic because the story takes place in the 1740s, and the waltz only became famous in Vienna during the early 19th century. Strauss thus intentionally used the waltz to create the nostalgic atmosphere associated with imperial Vienna instead of strict historical realism.
Performance history
Premiere Der Rosenkavalier premiered on 26 January 1911 in Dresden conducted by Ernst von Schuch, who had conducted the premieres of Strauss's Feuersnot, Salome and Elektra. Soprano Margarethe Siems (Strauss's first Chrysothemis) sang the Marschallin, in a turn that represented the pinnacle of her career, while Minnie Nast portrayed Sophie and Eva von der Osten sang the breeches role of Octavian.
From the start, Der Rosenkavalier was nothing short of a triumph: tickets to the premiere reportedly sold out almost immediately, resulting in a financial boom for the house. Though some critics took issue with Strauss's anachronistic use of waltz music, the public embraced the opera unconditionally. Rosenkavalier became Strauss's most popular opera during his lifetime and remains a staple of operatic repertoire today.
International success Within two months of its premiere, the work was translated into Italian and performed at La Scala. The Italian cast, led by conductor Tullio Serafin, included Lucrezia Bori as Octavian, Ines Maria Ferraris as Sophie, and Pavel Ludikar as Ochs. The opera's Austrian premiere was given by the Vienna Court Opera on the following 8 April, under Franz Schalk's baton,"Die Premiere des Rosenkavalier in der Hofoper", Neue Freie Presse, 9 April 1911, p. 16 (in German) with Lucie Weidt as Marschallin, Gertrude Förstel as Sophie substituting for Selma Kurz, Marie Gutheil-Schoder as Octavian and Richard Mayr as Ochs. The work reached the Teatro Costanzi in Rome seven months later on 14 November with Egisto Tango conducting Hariclea Darclée as the Marschallin and Conchita Supervía as Octavian.
The United Kingdom premiere of Der Rosenkavalier occurred at the Royal Opera House in London on 29 January 1913, produced by T. C. Fairbairn. Thomas Beecham conducted the performance and the cast included Margarethe Siems as the Marschallin and Caroline Hatchard as Sophie. The United States premiere took place at the Metropolitan Opera on the following 9 December in a production conducted by Alfred Hertz.Donal Henahan, Met's New Rosenkavalier, The New York Times, 24 January 1969. (Retrieved 24 September 2010) The cast included Frieda Hempel as the Marschallin, Margarethe Arndt-Ober as Octavian, and Anna Case as Sophie. A number of Italian theatres produced the work for the first time in the 1920s, including the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi (1921), Teatro Regio di Torino (1923), Teatro di San Carlo (1925), and the Teatro Carlo Felice (1926).
Der Rosenkavalier reached Monaco on 21 March 1926 when it was performed by the Opéra de Monte-Carlo at the Salle Garnier in a French translation. The performance starred Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi as the Marschallin and Vanni Marcoux as Faninal. 1926 also saw the premiere of a film of the opera. The French premiere of the opera itself came in 1927 at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 11 February 1927 with conductor Philippe Gaubert. The cast included Germaine Lubin as Octavian. Brussels heard the work for the first time at La Monnaie on 15 December 1927 with Clara Clairbert as Sophie.
The Salzburg Festival mounted Der Rosenkavalier for the first time on 12 August 1929 in a production conducted by Clemens Krauss. The cast included Lotte Lehmann as the Marschallin and Marta Fuchs as Annina. Other first productions at notable houses, opera festivals, and music ensembles include: Teatro Massimo (5 March 1932), Philadelphia Orchestra (30 November 1934), San Francisco Opera (16 October 1940), Philadelphia Opera Company (2 December 1941), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (2 May 1942), La Fenice (20 April 1943), Festival dei Due Mondi (19 June 1964), Teatro Comunale di Bologna (19 November 1965), Lyric Opera of Chicago (25 September 1970), and the New York City Opera (19 November 1973), among many others. It was first presented in Australia as a radio broadcast on 7 January 1936, featuring Florence Austral,"Amusements – Der Rosenkavalier", The Sydney Morning Herald (7 January 1936) but the first Australian stage production was not until 1972, by the Australian Opera in Melbourne, conducted by Sir Edward Downes."Sir Edward Downes: Conductor celebrated as one of the finest Verdi interpreters of his generation", Elizabeth Forbes, The Independent (London), 16 July 2009 The first New Zealand performance was at the International Festival of the Arts in Wellington in 2002.The New Zealand Herald, 2 March 2002, Brian Rudman
Roles +RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 26 January 1911Conductor: Ernst von SchuchThe Marschallin, Princess Marie Thérèse von WerdenbergsopranoMargarethe SiemsOctavian, Count Rofrano, her young lovermezzo-soprano (en travesti)Eva von der OstenBaron Ochs auf Lerchenau, the Marschallin's cousinbassKarl PerronSophie von Faninalhigh soprano or soubretteMinnie NastHerr von Faninal, Sophie's rich parvenu fatherhigh baritoneKarl ScheidemantelMarianne, Sophie's duennahigh sopranoRiza EibenschützValzacchi, an intriguertenorHans RüdigerAnnina, his niece and partnercontraltoErna FreundA notarybassLudwig ErmoldAn Italian singerhigh tenorFritz SootThree noble orphanssoprano, mezzo-soprano, contraltoMarie Keldorfer, Gertrude Sachse, Paula SeiringA millinersopranoElisa StünznerA vendor of petstenorJosef PauliFaninal's Major-DomotenorFritz SootA police inspectorbassJulius PuttlitzThe Marschallin's Major-DomotenorAnton ErlAn innkeepertenorJosef PauliFour lackeystenors, bassesJosef Pauli, Wilhelm Quidde, Rudolf Schmalnauer, Robert BüsselFour waiterstenor, bassesWilhelm Quidde, Rudolf Schmalnauer, Robert Büssel, Franz NebuschkaMohammed, the Marschallin's black pagesilentA flutist, a cook, a hairdresser and his assistant,a scholar, a noble widowall silentServants, hired deceivers, children, constables
Synopsis Time: 1740s, in the first years of the reign of Empress Maria Theresa Place: Vienna
Act 1
The Marschallin's bedroom
The opera's Einleitung (Introduction) depicts a night of sex between Princess Marie Therese von Werdenberg (known as the Marschallin, the title given to a Field Marshal's wife) and her much younger lover, Count Octavian Rofrano. The curtain rises to show them lounging in bed together just before daybreak ("Wie du warst! Wie du bist"). Loud voices are soon heard outside, and the Marschallin has Octavian hide, believing that her husband has returned early from a hunting trip. Octavian emerges in a skirt and bonnet ("Befehl'n fürstli' Gnad'n, i bin halt noch nit recht...") and tries to sneak away, but the Marschallin's country cousin, Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau, bursts in through the same door.