Post by erik on May 29, 2021 17:43:41 GMT -5
Richard Strauss, besides his symphonic tone poems, was arguably the successor to Richard Wagner in terms of grand German opera; and this week's Classical Works Spotlight looks at his most popular contribution to that field.
R. Strauss: DER ROSENKAVALIER
Aside from straight symphonies (of which he really didn’t write any), Richard Strauss managed to spread his abilities over many classical music forms, but two of them stand out. One is the symphonic tone poem, which Franz Liszt invented but Strauss managed to expand in terms of orchestration to quasi-Wagnerian size. The second is in the field of opera, where he became arguably Wagner’s successor. Operas like “Elektra”, “Capriccio”, and “Die Aegyptische Helena” have held the stage with an incredible amount of success, given the fact that the demands on both singers and orchestras are enormous. But the most popular work in Strauss’ operatic canon remains his great three-act 1911 comic opera “Der Rosenkavalier”. Something of a larger-than-life ode to a Vienna of the 1760’s with plenty of palace intrigue, with the composer frequently conjuring up waltzes redolent of the (totally unrelated) Strauss dynasty, “Der Rosenkavalier”, translated to the Knight of the Rose, premiered in Dresden on January 26, 1911, and, given the enormous size and 3-hour length of the thing, was virtually an instant success after just a handful of performances. Only two months later, it was first heard, via Italian translation, at La Scala. And although it didn’t reach British or American shores until 1913, once it did (the English premiere was at the Royal Opera House under Sir Thomas Beecham’s direction; the American premiere happened at the Metropolitan Opera under the direction of Alfred Herz), the opera’s European success was repeated in those countries as well. Overall, “Der Rosenkavalier” was the biggest operatic success of the composer’s career; and its success went beyond the operatic halls. While he was still alive, in 1945, Strauss approved the publication of an orchestral arrangement of music from “Der Rosenkavalier”, believed to have been conjured up the year before by the Polish conductor Artur Rodzinski, who conducted the suite’s premiere in October 1944 with the New York Philharmonic. It actually helped keep the opera alive in people's minds after most of the opera houses in Europe that had staged it were leveled in World War II.
The Marschallin, Princess Marie Therese of Werdenberg: ANNATOMOWA-SINTOW
Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau: KURT MOLL
Octavian: AGNES BALTSA
Herr Von Faninal: GOTTFRIED HORNIK
Sophie: JANET PERRY
Jungfer Marianne Lettmetzerin: WILMA LIPP
Valzacchi: HEINZ ZEDNIK
Annina: HELGA-MULLER MOLINARI
Police Commissioner: VICTOR VAN HALEM
The Marschallin’s Major-Domo: KURT EQUILLOZ
Faninal’s Major-Domo: FRANZ KASEMANN
A Notary: CARLOS FELLER
An Innkeeper: KARL TERKAL
A Singer: VINSON COLE
Vienna State Opera Concert Choir
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/HERBERT VON KARAJAN (Deutsche Grammophon)
R. Strauss: DER ROSENKAVALIER
Aside from straight symphonies (of which he really didn’t write any), Richard Strauss managed to spread his abilities over many classical music forms, but two of them stand out. One is the symphonic tone poem, which Franz Liszt invented but Strauss managed to expand in terms of orchestration to quasi-Wagnerian size. The second is in the field of opera, where he became arguably Wagner’s successor. Operas like “Elektra”, “Capriccio”, and “Die Aegyptische Helena” have held the stage with an incredible amount of success, given the fact that the demands on both singers and orchestras are enormous. But the most popular work in Strauss’ operatic canon remains his great three-act 1911 comic opera “Der Rosenkavalier”. Something of a larger-than-life ode to a Vienna of the 1760’s with plenty of palace intrigue, with the composer frequently conjuring up waltzes redolent of the (totally unrelated) Strauss dynasty, “Der Rosenkavalier”, translated to the Knight of the Rose, premiered in Dresden on January 26, 1911, and, given the enormous size and 3-hour length of the thing, was virtually an instant success after just a handful of performances. Only two months later, it was first heard, via Italian translation, at La Scala. And although it didn’t reach British or American shores until 1913, once it did (the English premiere was at the Royal Opera House under Sir Thomas Beecham’s direction; the American premiere happened at the Metropolitan Opera under the direction of Alfred Herz), the opera’s European success was repeated in those countries as well. Overall, “Der Rosenkavalier” was the biggest operatic success of the composer’s career; and its success went beyond the operatic halls. While he was still alive, in 1945, Strauss approved the publication of an orchestral arrangement of music from “Der Rosenkavalier”, believed to have been conjured up the year before by the Polish conductor Artur Rodzinski, who conducted the suite’s premiere in October 1944 with the New York Philharmonic. It actually helped keep the opera alive in people's minds after most of the opera houses in Europe that had staged it were leveled in World War II.
The Marschallin, Princess Marie Therese of Werdenberg: ANNATOMOWA-SINTOW
Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau: KURT MOLL
Octavian: AGNES BALTSA
Herr Von Faninal: GOTTFRIED HORNIK
Sophie: JANET PERRY
Jungfer Marianne Lettmetzerin: WILMA LIPP
Valzacchi: HEINZ ZEDNIK
Annina: HELGA-MULLER MOLINARI
Police Commissioner: VICTOR VAN HALEM
The Marschallin’s Major-Domo: KURT EQUILLOZ
Faninal’s Major-Domo: FRANZ KASEMANN
A Notary: CARLOS FELLER
An Innkeeper: KARL TERKAL
A Singer: VINSON COLE
Vienna State Opera Concert Choir
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/HERBERT VON KARAJAN (Deutsche Grammophon)