Metropolitan Opera – Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. December 13, 2013.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center – Balcony (Seat B116, $100.50.)

Conductor – Edward Gardner; Octavian – Daniela Sindram, The Marshallin (Princess von Werdenberg) – Martina Serafin, Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau – Runi Brattaberg, Annina – Jane Henschel, Valzacchi – Hohn Graham-Hall, Faninal – Hans-Joachim Ketelsen, Sophie – Erin Morley.

Story.  Octavian is asked by Baron Ochs to deliver a silver rose to Sophie as a token for their engagement.  Octavian and Sophie fall in love when they see each other.  Sophie then finds out Baron Ochs is a crude older fellow and doesn’t want to marry him.  A scheme is then hatched to get the Baron in a compromising situation and he leaves the scene, thus allowing Octavian and Sophie’s relationship to continue.  There are a couple of side stories also.  One is that Octavian was originally the lover of the older Marshallin who accepts and encourages Octavian to be with Sophie.  Also, Sophie’s father Faninal really wanted his daughter to marry into royalty and was willing to give up a lot, including her happiness, to do so.  He eventually changed his mind.

There is this reference to too much of a good thing.  And then there is, simply, too much of a thing.  Today is somewhat in the latter category.  A 4 ½ opera following a 45 minute tone poem by Strauss will make one feel that.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

We had a few hours between the New York Philharmonic concert and this Opera, so we went down to Chinatown, walked around a bit, had a simple dinner, and it was time to head back.  I seldom go to Chinatown nowadays, it seems to be much cleaner and orderly than the Chinatown I remembered.  Perhaps the below-freezing temperature was a cause?  Luckily it wasn’t windy.

The concert didn’t start on an auspicious note.  First we were handed these small slips saying both the roles of Octavian and Baron Ochs would be sung by substitutes, the singers originally programmed (Geraldine Chauvet and Peter Rose) were ill.  There was another substitution announced on stage, the Singer Eric Cutler would be replaced (I forget the replacement’s name, one with a Chinese name.)  There were quite a few empty seats at 7 pm, the start time.  Perhaps to be expected as this was the last performance for this opera this season, this was the year-end shopping season, and it was very cold.  The orchestra was seated, but nothing happened for 15 or so minutes.  A couple of announcements came on to say the concert would be delayed due to technical problems with the set, and that the show would commence “in a few minutes.”  All in all the start was delayed by about 30 minutes, resulting in an end time of around midnight.  On the bright side, I got to finish the Synopsis and the Program Notes.

I had not slept well the last few evenings due to a lingering cough, and Anne started the day at 9 am.  We both had to work hard to stay awake during the first Act.  I eventually conquered my sleepiness; I am quite sure Anne kept dozing off despite being able to sit quite still.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t get to enjoy some aspects of the opera.  The opera is mainly a comedy, and as comedic operas go it is reasonably effective.  As the Playbill says, some elements are slapstick, some are more subtle; and I find the slapsticks one quite tastefully done.  But there are a couple of other aspects illustrated by the “side stories.”  One was the Princess’s resignation and acceptance of her inability to hang on to Octavian due to her being much older than him; this was done with a moving poignancy.  The other was how snobbish the Baron was and how Faninal was willing to sacrifice her daughter’s happiness to move up the societal ladder.

The music was uncharacteristically easy to listen to, and the orchestra put in a great performance.  The well-known waltz from this opera, it turns out, is an adaptation as an orchestral piece (evidently done with the blessing of Strauss).  In the opera it was never played from start to finish; we only get various snippets of it, mostly associated with the Baron.  It is a good thing that this waltz was not the only reason we wanted to see this opera.

The singing was surprisingly weak, with a few exceptions.  I do not know the last-minute replacements, perhaps they are great singers in their own right, but both Octavian and the Baron sounded a bit on the wooden side.  The low notes sung by the Baron actually didn’t carry at all into the balcony.  There are many singing roles (I only listed what I consider the main characters), and the substitute for Eric Cutler did quite well, although he had only two passages.

The role of Octavian, a young lad of seventeen, is sung by a mezzo-soprano.  He (she?) sings many duets and trios with the two leading ladies, and I find the arrangement very confusing.  To make things worse, Octavian at some point disguised himself as a chambermaid.  So you have a situation where a woman playing the role of the man disguising himself as a woman – I think I got that right – and I was hopelessly lost.  And the costumse didn’t try to conceal the fact that the artist is a woman either.

The Playbill talks about a “famous final trio, a gorgeous blend of female voices that is among the supreme accomplishments of lyric theater,” which I unfortunately don’t quite appreciate to such a degree.  A couple of other interesting tidbits: one is the pause between “younger” and “prettier” that reflects the Princess’s mindset, I think it is lost in translation; the other is the words “ja, ja” added by Strauss so the Princess gets to say something in a particular scene, that I got.

The three sets used are all traditional, depicting the opulence of Vienna at the time.  And the costumes were also period, which I appreciated.  However, there were very few moving parts to the sets other than curtains and doors, so I couldn’t figure out what the technical programs at the beginning could possibly be.  Anne overheard during intermission that the sets are about 50 years old (actually they were first used in 1969, per the New York Times), that may explain all the nail pounding we heard between acts.

So my reaction to the opera is mixed.  What I couldn’t tell was whether it was the performance or my not being as sharp as I could be.  For the few people who read this blog that think I am over-critical, my remarks are downright enthusiastic compared to the gentleman sitting in front of me.  He thought the artists could neither sing nor act.  The New York Times review of an earlier performance (with many different cast members) was effusive.  Perhaps I should see this again (and I can hear Anne saying “noooooo.”)

Given the late start and the length of the opera, and that there was still much traffic in New York City at midnight, it was well past 1 am when we got home.