Der Rosenkavalier facts for kids

Robert Sterl: Ernst Edler von Schuch conducting Der Rosenkavalier (1912)

Der Rosenkavalier (in English: The Knight of the Rose) is a comic opera by Richard Strauss. The words (libretto) were especially written for the opera by the German poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

It was first performed in Dresden on 26 January 1911 and was an immediate success. It continues to be a very popular opera in opera houses all over the world and has been performed more often than any other German language 20th century opera.

The story is supposed to be happening in Vienna in the time of the Empress Maria Theresa (mid to late 18th century). The opera has four main characters: the aristocratic Marschallin; her brutish cousin Baron Ochs; Ochs's prospective fiancée, Sophie von Faninal, the daughter of a rich bourgeois and a 17-year-old Count Octavian Rofrano.

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, 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. 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. 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, but the first Australian stage production was not until 1972, by the Australian Opera in Melbourne, conducted by Sir Edward Downes. The first New Zealand performance was at the International Festival of the Arts in Wellington in 2002.

Roles

Language

The language used by Hofmannsthal changes according to who is speaking. The members of the nobility speak in very elegant language which is often old-fashioned and always very polite. When good friends speak to one another they often use the familiar (du) (“you” when used between very close friends). For example: Octavian and the Marschallin often use the familiar "you" but sometimes use (Sie) when they are being more formal.

Baron Ochs is always showing off and the words he uses show this. When Octavian pretends to be the maid Mariandel he speaks in an Austrian dialect. Valzacchi and Annina also speak in a dialect, but their German is not perfect and often mixed with Italian.

All this makes it particularly difficult to sing the opera in any other language.

The New Kobbé Opera book, ed. The Earl of Harewood and Antony Peattie; ISBN: 0091814103

Images for kids

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  Richard Strauss in 1910

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  Hogarth's The Countess's Morning Levee (ca. 1744), the inspiration for the Marschallin's morning reception

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  1927 portrait of Richard Mayr as Ochs by Anton Faistauer. Mayr sang this role 149 times in Vienna, Salzburg and London.

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  Delia Reinhardt as Octavian c. 1923

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  Farewell of Marschallin in act 3, with Mojca Erdmann, Sophie Koch and Krassimira Stoyanova (from left to right), Salzburg Festival 2014

See also

In Spanish: El caballero de la rosa para niños