Discover Strauss's Opera Der Rosenkavalier
A cross-dressing cavalier outwits a lecherous old Baron in Strauss's most popular opera.
Introduction | Synopsis | Characters
Introduction
Composed in 1911, Der Rosenkavalier harks nostalgically back to the Old World charm of Austria’s great days of affluence in the 1800s. Its neo-Mozartian elegance of music and plot ally it with great comic operas of previous centuries, but it combines such Mozartian clarity with post-Wagnerian harmonisation. The prelude notoriously represents a scene of enthusiastic love-making - complete with a climax of whooping horns.
The plot hinges on class distinctions in an aristocratic world. A princess is celebrated for her nobility. A Baron tries to trade social rank for wealth. A merchant is ridiculed for being a parvenu. Against such social satire is set the tender pathos of an older woman’s relationship with a younger man and the grotesque spectacle of an old man’s improper advances to a young girl.
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Synopsis
Setting: Vienna, early 18th century
Act I
The Marschallin Princess of Werdenberg's boudoir
While her husband is away, the Marschallin spends a passionate night in her boudoir with her young lover Octavian.
Someone is heard approaching and Octavian dons a chambermaid’s outfit as a disguise.
Baron Ochs, the Marschallin's repulsive elderly cousin, comes in. He has come to seek advice on how to propose to a wealthy merchant’s nubile young daughter Sophie.
Baron Ochs wants to send a ‘Rosenkavalier / Knight of the Rose’– a messenger who will deliver a silver rose as a symbol of his intent to marry – and is seeking someone noble to fulfil the role. The Marschallin recommends that her young cousin Octavian will do the job.
All the while, Baron Ochs makes crude passes at Octavian in his disguise as the chambermaid ‘Mariandel’, and boasts of his many sexual conquests.
The Marschallin in a melancholy moods tells Octavian his love for her will not last.
Act II
Herr von Faninal’s house
Octavian brings Sophie the silver rose on the Baron’s behalf. She is immediately smitten by the young and handsome Octavian. They fall madly in love.
Sophie’s father then brings in the disreputable old Baron, her intended bridegroom. His coarse manners and crude behaviour offend Sophie so much that Octavian challenges him to a duel, wounding him slightly.
A great hubbub ensues with the wounded Baron screaming for help, Sophie protesting that she will never marry such a man, and her father insisting that she shall.
Octavian aided by scheming servants concocts a plot to embarrass the Baron and stop the marriage. They send him a letter purporting to be from the Marschallin's chambermaid ‘Mariandel’ suggesting an assignation at a local Inn.
Act III
A private room at an inn
Octavian appears dressed as ‘Mariandel’ to meet the Baron. Unbeknown to the Baron, various spies are in place to witness his illicit behaviour and play tricks on him. They have been recruited by Octavian from the many servants and lackeys that the Baron has offended over the years and are keen to get revenge.
The coy ‘Mariandel’ leads the ghastly Baron on. He is enthusiastic but grows increasingly confused by ‘Mariandel’s resemblance to the young man who wounded him earlier.
One of Octavian’s allies appears and pretends to bring a paternity suit against the Baron, producing four little children who hail him as ‘papa’. A brawl ensues. The police arrive, followed by Sophie’s father.
Octavian reveals his true self and the Baron realises he has been duped.
The Marschallin appears and resolves the situation. In music of great beauty she gracefully gives Octavian his freedom from her as a lover, and the two young lovers are united.
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Characters
Octavian: Known as 'Quinquin', a young gentleman of noble family who has an affair with an aristocratic older woman: The Marschallin, before falling in love with the younger merchant’s daughter Sophie
Mezzo-soprano
The Marschallin Princess of Werdenberg: Wife of Field Marshal Prince Werdenberg. She has an affair with the young Octavian, but knows that it can have no future as he is young and will inevitably leave her. With great dignity she helps him in his pursuit of his younger lover Sophie.
Soprano
Baron Ochs of Lerchenau: The Marschallin's impoverished older cousin. He wants to marry Sophie to get her money, and is pompous enough to believe that she will be delighted because he is a nobleman.
Bass
Sophie: The young daughter of the merchant Faninal. The odious Baron Ochs hopes to marry her, but she finds him repellent and falls in love with his messenger Octavian.
Soprano
Herr von Faninal: A rich and newly ennobled merchant, Sophie’s father. He is delighted that the noble Baron Ochs wishes to marry his daughter.
Baritone
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