DER ROSENKAVALIER
Octavian and the field marshal’s wife (the Marschallin) are having a passionate affair, although he is 17, she in her early 30s. He’s utterly infatuated with her, but she predicts that she will be replaced in his affections by a younger woman. By the final curtain, not only has the Marschallin’s prophecy come true all too soon; but she has come that much closer to realizing the unavoidable reality she most fears–that of her own mortality.
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Those potential confusions aside, Der Rosenkavalier contains some of the most sumptuous music ever heard in the opera house, while remaining a truly theatrical spectacle that walks the line between farce and poignancy as has no other opera before or since. Luckily, many of its most potent features are brought off quite effectively in the present Lyric production, even though many others are, unfortunately, thrown by the the wayside.
Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter made her debut here four years ago in Solti-led CSO performances of the Mozart C Minor Mass. Since then, she has become one of Solti’s favorite singers, having sung Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion twice here (and recording it), as well as Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust, which she sang here last May and recently sang again on Solti’s farewell European tour. One could quibble about the appropriateness of her rich, romantic voice for Bach and Mozart, but Lyric’s general director Ardis Krainik was so moved by von Otter’s first performance here that she went backstage and immediately offered her the role of Octavian. Krainik’s instincts were right on the mark in this case. Librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal made the role of the 17-year-old boy Octavian, who dresses up as a female chambermaid, a trouser role for a female mezzo-soprano, and with her slender six-foot frame and her short, spiked blond hair, von Otter is far more believable in the role than the many buxom sopranos who have sung it. Her acting was superb, very boyish and impetuous, and although her voice is not as large as one would like for Strauss, her vocal coloring and technique are, as always, beautiful to behold. One could see her really making this role her own, growing with it as time goes on. I had never seen a blond Octavian before and thought for sure that von Otter’s hair would be darkened, but perhaps she’s begun a new trend for this opera.
Moll’s Ochs dominates the proceedings and he also connects particularly well with Octavian; their flirting scenes, where Octavian is in drag as the fictitious chambermaid Mariandel (in disguise so as to leave the Marschallin’s bedroom undetected), are hilarious precisely because they are not overdone.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Tony Romano.
