In co-production with the Salzburg Landestheater
Leslie Suganandarajah, musical direction
Roland Schwab, stage direction
Piero Vinciguerra, stage
Gabriele Rupprecht, costumes
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg
Magdalena Anna Hofmann, Feldmarschallin
Sophie Harmsen, Octavian
Martin Summer, Baron Ochs
a.o.
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With "Der Rosenkavalier," Richard Strauss created a musically and scenically demanding work that represents a great effort for any house. Now the Salzburg Landestheater, in cooperation with the Salzburg Cultural Association, is bringing this unique opera to the stage on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. The production at the Felsenreitschule continues a fine tradition of cooperation.
"Time, it is a strange thing. When you live like this, it's nothing at all. But then suddenly, you feel nothing but it." Over everything hovers the foreboding of unstoppable change and the feeling of a new beginning. Such a feeling also creeps over the Field Marshal when she lies in bed with her lover Octavian one morning. When the intimate tête-à-tête is interrupted by the uncouth Baron Ochs, events come to a head. Octavian is unexpectedly appointed his bride's suitor and is supposed to ask for the hand of young Sophie Faninal as the Cavalier of the Roses. But during the handing over of the roses, the bride's suitor and the bride fall in love with each other.
With plenty of local Viennese color, Richard Strauss' and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Rosenkavalier" combines a comedy about love's aberrations and confusions with lively waltzes, turbulent comedy and great profundity. The small problems of everyday life are joined in this opera by existential questions about the fragility of human relationships and social order, and combine to form one of the most human and moving narratives in the history of opera.
Even at its premiere in Dresden in 1911, "Der Rosenkavalier" became a veritable cult: special trains had to be organized to the performances to accommodate the large crowds, cigarettes were renamed "Rosenkavalier" and characters from the Strauss opera were always discovered in carnival parades. To this day, it is considered a genre highlight of comic opera. With a great deal of humor and incomparable sensitivity, the music and text (which in itself already counts as world literature) draw three-dimensional characters with rough edges. In the process, the opera creates a vivid social picture of the late Habsburg Empire, a period considered a key period in Austrian history.
Music director Leslie Suganandarajah and director Roland Schwab will realize the "comedy for music" - as it was called by its creators. Once again, Schwab is collaborating with stage designer Piero Vinciguerra for this project. The team has already been able to thrill audiences at the Felsenreitschule with the successful production of "Lohengrin," which was nominated twice for the 2021 Austrian Music Theater Prize.
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Tickets: € 57 – € 89
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Further dates:
October 1 + 11, 6 p.m., Felsenreitschule
October 9 + 23, 3 p.m., Felsenreitschule
