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O P E R A N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
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February 8 - March 13, 2016
him, or doesn’t she love him after all? Or maybe
she, in a way, sees herself in Sophie. Before even
meeting her, the Marschallin has noted some
similarities between them: she, too, was a pretty
girl brought up in a convent and forced into an
arranged marriage. Although we can’t know her
husband’s nature, we might suppose that the
Marschallin does for Sophie what nobody years
before had done for
her
: Saving her from a mar-
riage to an older man she never loved, making
it possible for her to marry a man she
does
love.
When all is said and done, is there one
main character in
Der Rosenkavalier
’s web of
relationships? With the changing title, the
attention shifted from Ochs to Octavian,
but the figure with the most human appeal
is certainly the Marschallin. She appears in
less than half the opera, but she still domi-
nates it. Hofmannsthal himself called her “the
central figure for the public,” and years later
even cited her as the opera’s “one engaging
character.” Her mature understanding enables
her to precipitate a happy ending after the
third act’s chaos. And more important, she
doesn’t break down over the loss of Octavian.
Renouncing him may be self-sacrifice, but it’s
not self-abandonment. We’ve seen enough
of this woman’s strength to rest assured that
she’ll do just fine.
Both Strauss and Hofmannsthal seemed
to regard
Der Rosenkavalier
as their most suc-
cessful collaboration, and its success is by no
means undeserved: the irresistible text and
magnificent music intertwine incomparably,
creating a story that’s rich, witty, sentimen-
tal, touching, and broadly comic at the same
time. The opera isn’t flawless; Hofmannsthal
criticized it frequently (particularly the “pieced
together” third act), and Strauss, recogniz-
ing its considerable length, authorized cuts
for performances. But poet and composer
still loved this work immensely. It’s certainly
saying a lot that many decades later, when
he was long established as Germany’s most
successful composer, Strauss took great pride
in introducing himself by declaring, “I am the
composer of
Der Rosenkavalier
.”
Dresden native Mandy Hildebrandt, Lyric's
dramaturgical intern from September to
December 2015, graduated Leipzig's University
of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn
Bartholdy" with an undergraduate thesis about
sign-language interpreted musical performances.
She has undertaken internships with several
German companies (among them the Leipzig
Opera) and is continuing her studies in Germany.
(Top) Two celebrated interpreters of
Der Rosenkavalier
, Christa Ludwig
(the Marschallin, left) and Yvonne
Minton (Octavian), collaborated
onstage at Lyric for the company’s first
production of Strauss’s opera in 1970.
(Middle) Annina (Stephanie
Novacek) and Valzacchi (David
Cangelosi) attempt to pull apart
Sophie (Camilla Tilling) and
Octavian (Susan Graham), who are
already in love:
Der Rosenkavalier
at
Lyric, 2005-06 season.
(Bottom) Baron Ochs (Franz
Hawlata) is unsuccessful in seducing
“Mariandel” – the disguised Octavian
(Susan Graham):
Der Rosenkavalier
at Lyric, 2005-06 season.
ROBERT KUSEL
DAN REST
DAVID H. FISHMAN