Der Rosenkavalier

Der Rosenkavalier is my favourite of Strauss' operas, and this is coming from someone who loves Strauss' music and listens to it a lot. For productions of the operas, my favourites are the 1962 Schwarzkopf, Rothenberger, Jurinac and Edelmann and 1979 Jones, Fassbaender, Popp and Jungwirth performances. The 1985 TeKanawa, Bonney, Howells and Haughland, 1982 TeKanawa, Troyanos, Blegen and Moll and 1994 Lott, Bonney, Von Otter and Moll performances are also must-sees. This Der Rosenkavalier is my least favourite, but is still worth watching. I was not sure about the brothel setting in the final act, and the conversation between Faninal and Marschallin as they walk past the bed was very miscalculated, mainly because in WW1(in which updates the opera to) people didn't talk like that.

However, the sets on the whole are excellent the best being Faninal's grand hall in Act 2, and the costumes while not as sumptuous as especially the 1985 and 1994 performances are quite good. The video directing is also fine, not too close that you see something like too much sweat or the insides of the singers' nostrils and not too far-away that you don't empathise with the singers and characters. The sound and picture quality are clean and clear. The staging mostly I did not have a problem with, I found Act 2 to be a comic joy really. Some of it is minimalistic, but not so much that the singers can't do much with their roles. Musically, it is superb. The orchestral playing is lush and soaring while giving characters to the Viennesse-Waltz-style tunes. Semyon Bychkov's conducting shows great energy and skill also.

The singing is just as impressive. The weak link is sadly Franz Hawlata. He is definitely not bad as Baron Ochs, he is funny but gives the role some humanity, considering how problematic like Beckmesser from Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg the character is to play that is an achievement. He is not as ideal vocally however, the voice is good and quite handsome but not sonorous enough, I did get the sense listening to his basso notes that the role was too low for him at times. Franz Grundheber does show signs of vocal wear but characterises Faninal splendidly regardless. Florian Boesch makes for a promising Police Comissioner and Piotr Beczala makes for a droll and beautifully sung Italian Opera Singer.

But it was the ladies that really impressed. Adrianne Pieczonka's Marschallin is moving and nuanced, noble and intense. Her Act 1 monologue is really beautifully sung, she does make the most of the character's sad, wise words. Angelika Kirchschlager is a firm and passionate Octavian, at her best in the Presentation of the Rose scene, though her comic style as Mariandel is a treat as well. As for Sophie, Miah Persson is just perfect, beautiful yet spunky and her voice is one of purity and her high notes in the Trio in particular among the most ethereal of any soprano singing this role. All in all, not definitive but definitely worth a look. 7/10 Bethany Cox

There are a lot of films of Richard Strauss's evergreen classic 'Der Rosenkavalier' and this is one of the better ones. The two films of Carlos Kleiber's conducting of this opera are famous, the first one still being the best bet for newcomers to this art form in this particular work.

Semyon Bychkov comes very close to Kleiber in excellence, with a splendid cast of leads, if not ideal in some instances. Robert Carsen's sets are beautiful and largely traditional. He moves the time of the story up from the 18th century to somewhere in the 19th with touches of the 20th here and there in the costuming. When this production premiered there was a lot of griping about the 3rd act, here set in a bawdy house instead of a good old-fashioned tavern. There is some male nudity which does seem gratuitous but it is funny as it gives Baron Ochs something hilarious to respond to in his befuddled moment of humiliation.

Other than that this production is pretty straight forward and faithful to Hugo von Hofmanthal's libretto.

The Vienna Philharmonic plays with its usual (and expected) expertise in this piece and Bychkov captures all the magic and comedy inherent in the score. His cast is about the best that could have been assembled at the time. Adrianne Pieczonka is a tougher cookie than most Marschallins but she displays all the wisdom and sympathy lovers of this opera expect in this roll, and she sings beautifully and powerfully in the 3rd act. Her famous first act monologue about the passing of time is satisfyingly touching if not as tear-jerking as other famous Marschallins, like Régine Crespin and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

Oktavian, the eponymous hero, is beautifully sung by Angelika Kirschlager, a fine actress as well, though she looks too feminine in close-ups, but this hardly matters. The trio of ladies is perfectly rounded off by Miah Persson's beautiful and adorable Sophie. The presentation of the rose in Act 2 is exquisitely sung and acted by Kirschlager and Persson, and is quite moving in one of the most beautiful scenes in all of opera.

Baron Ochs, a very deep bass role, is not quite encompassed so successfully by Franz Hawlata. The low notes, as at the end of Act 2, are a stretch for this basically bass-baritone voice but he manages them and he's a fine actor and is very funny at all times, fully alive to every nuance of the text. The balance of the supporting cast is top drawer. The stage direction is not too fussy and the action of the principals is subtle and intelligently executed.

The camera work does not jump around too much but focuses mostly on the full stage, showing the beautiful sets, especially Faninal's grand hall in Act 2. There are close-ups but not so close that you see spit flying from the singers' mouths or veins popping out on their necks or anything like that. If you're not a seasoned opera watcher you won't understand what this means. The ease with which these singers sing makes for very comfortable viewing in that respect.

If you're a collector of filmed opera and 'Der Rosenkavalier' is one of your favorites then I recommend you adding this one to your collection. It's a keeper and one I'll watch again and again when I'm in the mood and have the time. It's a long opera, though not as long as most Wagner, but it takes time to get through. It can also be tiring to read surtitles for 3+ hours, but we have the wonderful 'pause' button to alleviate eyeball fatigue.

If you think you are not an opera fan this is a good opera to start with in spite of its length. The music is glorious and full of hummable tunes. Productions like this are the kind of thing that creates opera fans.

I don't know any opera lovers who are not also film buffs. I think that there may be many more film buffs who could become opera fans by watching excellent live productions caught on celluloid, like this one.

Highly recommended.

There is no lack of fine performances of this opera on DVD and CD, so it has to be something really special to move into the first rank of Rosenkavaliers. I compared this one to the Munich production of 1979, conducted by Carlos Kleiber, and the Zurich of 2004, conducted by Franz Welser-Most, and found it lacking in production values and fidelity to the text. The first act is all right: Pieczonka as the Marschallin and Kirchschlager as Octavian are passionate enough as they roll around in bed; they are a match for Jones and Fassbaender in 1979, and Stemme and Kasarova in 2004. Hawlata however is just not effective as Ochs, not nearly vulgar and coarse enough, and his low notes are not rich and vibrant. I really miss Jungwirth in Munich 1979.

Act Two goes along well enough at Faninal's house. Miah Persson is a superb Sophie, both visually and vocally, but Kirchschlager disappoints; she does not know how to play a teenage boy getting angry with a boorish Ochs. Fassbaender and Kasarova both come out way ahead on acting chops, especially the latter--you can practically see the smoke coming out of her ears.

Act Three offers the biggest problems: the brothel setting is completely wrong, a distortion of the libretto that takes the production off the rails. The Marschallin would never show up at Madame Kitty's! (or whatever the place is called). Altogether, a weak entry in the crowded field of Rosenkavalier on video.

Note: I see that I haven't mentioned the sets. The deep red bedroom in Act One serves to diminish the contributions of the two principals. Pieczonka especially has trouble coping with the colour bath; many little details that a singer would supply are lost in the riot of colour. The same is true of Act Three. This fact, as well as the liberties with the text, serve to eliminate this film from my library.