Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (Glyndebourne)

Tara Erraught (Octavian); Kate Royal (The Marschallin ); Lars Woldt (Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau ); Teodora Gheorghiu (Sophie ); Michael Kraus (Herr von Faninal ); Miranda Keys (Marianne Leitmetzerin ); Christopher Gillett (Valzacchi ); Helene Schneiderman (Annina);

Strauss’s musically ravishing comic masterpiece is given a visual updating in director Richard Jones’s stylish and ‘gently subversive’ Glyndebourne staging, one which offers ‘a dreamlike distortion not just of Vienna’s 18th-century past, but also of everything we know about reality’ (Financial Times). Created to mark the150th centenary of the composer’s birth, the production is packed with energy and wit, its impeccable stagecraft by no means detracting from the first-class singing which underpins, among others, Tara Erraught’s ‘touching’ (Guardian) performance as Octavian, Kate Royal’s ‘most graceful of Marschallins’ and Lars Woldt’s ‘pitch-perfect’ Baron Ochs (Sunday Telegraph). Conductor Robin Ticciati brings clarity and detail to the score, infusing the music with spirit and humanity.

Reviews

"Robin Ticciati conducts briskly, lovingly, and the London Philharmonic is on top form." (The Financial Times ★★★★)

"Both Teodora Gheorghiu (Sophie) and the 27-year old Irish star mezzo Tara Erraught (Octavian) had a blissful innocence about them, as fresh in appearance and voice as babes in the wood. Gheorghiu has a quick, brittle, naughty demeanour reminiscent of the young Natalie Dessay. Erraught was touching in the trouser role of young Octavian, every moment beautifully sung and acted, ardent and appealing. Her voice is rich with dark glints and bright promise and she offered some of the best singing of the evening." (The Observer ★★★★)

"The evening offers two major revelations. Kate Royal, who has recently sounded short of her best and stressed by motherhood, emerges happily here as the most graceful of Marschallins: in silk-smooth voice, she sang with tender attention to the text and a mixture of warmth and dignity that made the final renunciation sharply moving: her wryly regretful and slightly cross “Ja, ja” spoke volumes and brought a lump to my throat. The other surprise is Robin Ticciati’s conducting of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Without hysteria or grandstanding, he moves through the Straussian thickets with unfailing clarity of purpose and a keen ear for detail, bringing to the music a humanity and charm..." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★)

"Jones never stints on Der Rosenkavalier's extravagance, nor on its romance, and especially not on the beauty of thought that governs the selfless behaviour of Kate Royal's magisterial Marschallin. Combined with some transcendent playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Robin Ticciati he has created a rapturous new production that's loaded with fresh observation, musical felicity and emotional truth.... The excellent German bass Lars Woldt invests Baron Ochs with some notably dark colours: here is no superannuated Commedia buffoon but a youngish man of reactionary persuasion, and his besting by Octavian is all the more satisfying for his nasty plausibility. And Glyndebourne's new music director Robin Ticciati wins his spurs with a mighty, magnificently homogeneous account of the score. Finally there's Richard Jones, the operatic individualist par excellence, who has given this great work the production it deserves." (What's On Stage ★★★★★)