The new State Opera production (24 and 27 November) of Der Rosenkavalier is a revival of the highly acclaimed Komische Oper Berlin adaptation, directed by Andreas Homoki, conducted by Gabriel Feltz, and featuring Frank Philipp Schlößmann’s sets and Gideon Davey’s costumes.
One of the most popular 20th–century operas, Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) was created by the German composer Richard Strauss in collaboration with the Austrian writer, dramatist, and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal.
Presenting a colorful picture of life in mid-18th-century Vienna, it employs numerous time-honored comedy traits – disguise, convoluted situations, and ridiculous human types. The world premiere of Der Rosenkavalier, in 1911 in Dresden, was such a sensational success that extra train connections were provided in order to make it possible for opera fans from across Europe to travel to see the production in the capital of Saxony. Strauss himself referred to Der Rosenkavalier as a “Mozartean opera”, adding that he had aimed to create a modern version of Le Nozze di Figaro.
Though a comedy, whose four protagonists – the aristocratic Marschallin, her lover Count Octavian, her cousin Baron Ochs and his prospective fiancée Sophie – are enmeshed in a number of intrigues involving mistaken identities, the piece also affords food for thought, incorporating such weighty themes as marital infidelity and human inconstancy. The new State Opera production of Der Rosenkavalier is a revival of the highly acclaimed Komische Oper Berlin adaptation, directed by Andreas Homoki and featuring Frank Philipp Schlößmann’s sets and Gideon Davey’s costumes.