| Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
Date & Time: 6:30pm 3-5 October 2008
Venue: Poly Theatre
Price( RMB ): 100,380,580,780,980VIP
Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
Ofelia Sala (Sophie)
Noemi Nadelmann (Marschallin)
Antigone Papoulkas (Oktavian)
Kurt Rydl (Ochs)
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Ulf Schirmer, conductor
Richard Georg Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (June 11, 1864 – September 8, 1949) was a German composer of the late Romantic era and early modern era, particularly noted for his operas and tone poems – the most famous being Also sprach Zarathustra (the opening section of which is well known today for its use in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey). Strauss was also a noted conductor.
Masterpieces: Tone poems, Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, ), Don Quixote , Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration)
Operas, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose), Elektra.
Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose)
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai 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.
There are many recordings of the opera, and it is regularly performed.
Summary
Der Rosenkavalier centres on the shifting romantic attachments of four principal characters, the Marschallin (a noblewoman who at age 32 is concerned that her visual charms will quickly succumb to middle age), Octavian (a 17-year-old youth), Baron Ochs von Lerchenau (the Marschallin’s bumbling and foolish cousin) and the 15-year-old Sophie (to whom Baron Ochs is engaged). The opera opens with the Marschallin and Octavian, having spent the night together, being disturbed by the arrival of Baron Ochs who has come to seek the Marschallin’s assistance in courting Sophie. When the Marschallin’s back is turned, Ochs makes a pass for what he believes to be her chambermaid but is actually Octavian in disguise. Octavian escapes and in his absence he is appointed a "Rosenkavalier", whose duty it is to carry the Baron’s love-token —a silver rose— to Sophie. As soon as he sets eyes on Sophie, however, Octavian falls in love with her, and Sophie begs him to help her avoid marrying Ochs. After some rather convoluted plot twists, Sophie and Octavian are united, Ochs is abandoned and the Marschallin, who knew Octavian would eventually leave her for a younger woman, is left alone.
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