Der Rosenkavalier a Comic Opera in Three Acts
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Five Hundred Sixtieth Program of the 2011-12 Season _______________________ Indiana University Opera Theater presents as its 423rd production Der Rosenkavalier a Comic Opera in Three Acts Music by Richard Strauss Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal Adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and the comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac by Molière David Effron, Conductor Vincent Liotta, Stage Director William Forrester, Set Designer Linda Pisano, Costume Designer Marie Barrett, Lighting Designer Kim Carballo, Prompter Julia Hoffmann Lawson, Supertitles ____________________ Musical Arts Center Friday, February Twenty-Fourth Saturday, February Twenty-Fifth Friday, March Second Saturday, March Third Seven O’Clock music.indiana.edu Cast of Characters Princess Marie Therese (Marschallin) Pauliina Linnosaari, Heather Youngquist Baron Ochs Ethan Herschenfeld, Pawel Izdebski Count Octavian Amanda Russo, Sarah Ballman Herr von Faninal Gabe Helton, Nathaniel Olson Sophie, Faninal’s daughter Hye Jung Lee, Evelyn Nelson Marianne, Sophie’s duenna Suna Avci, Christa Ruiz Valzacchi, an intriguer Benjamin Cortez, Lorenzo Garcia Annina, his accomplice Nicole Shorts, Emily Smokovich Notary Preston Orr, Andrew Richardson Police Commissioner Jerome Sibulo Marschallin’s Major-Domo Brendon Marsh Faninal’s Major-Domo Jay Bennett Notary Preston Orr, Andrew Richardson Innkeeper Benjamin Werley Italian Singer David Margulis, Andrew Lunsford Three Noble Orphans Paloma Friedhoff Bello, Valerie Saba, Amber McKoy Milliner Mathilda Edge Animal Seller Nicholas Pulikowski Marschallin Footmen Jake Thomason, Nikolas Karageorgiou, Jordan Rininger, Joseph Fernandez Dressing Woman Emily Blair Scholar Joe Uthup Leopold, Ochs’s Body Servant Curtis Crafton Ochs Footmen Steve Sifner, Nate Hill, Joe Uthup, Brayton Arvin, Nikolas Karageorgiou Faninal Footmen Gabriel Ma, Will Perkins, Nicholas Pulikowski, Jordan Rininger, Zacharay Weber, Ben Werley Faninal Maids Emily Blair, Georgia Boonshoft, Vinéecia Buchanan, Kellie Cullinan, Asha Goings, Katherine Matthews, Shelley Ploss Hayduk/Policemen David Gordon-Johnson, Michael Deane Servant Boy Elías Carballo-Jackson Five Children Basia Bryan, Baleigh Goodlett, Eleanor Lloyd, Alexandra Lucas, Olivia McDermott-Sipe Synopsis Act I The arschallinM Werdenberg, wife of the Field Marschal Prince Werdenberg, and her lover, Count Octavian Rofrano, are in the Marschallin’s bedroom It is morning, and their tender embraces are interrupted by some commotion in the entrance hall The Marschallin, frightened, assumes that the voice outside is that of her husband A moment later, she recognizes that the voice belongs to her distant cousin, the Baron Ochs von Lerchenau Octavian, hiding, finds some clothes of the Marschallin’s maid He appears in that disguise, to the amusement of the Marschallin She promptly calls him “Mariandel,” a popular name for servant girls The aronB enters Hoping to improve his financial position, he plans to marry Sophie, the daughter of the businessman Faninal The Baron has come to ask the Marschallin to choose for him a young cavalier who shall present the Silver Rose, the traditional symbol of betrothal among the aristocracy, to Sophie In a mischievous mood, the Marschallin suggests Octavian as the cavalier and shows his portrait to the Baron He seems to notice a certain resemblance between the portrait and “Mariandel” and comments with a grin that she might be the Count’s illegitimate sister At this moment, the Marschallin begins her morning reception Baron Ochs discusses his marriage contract with the notary The arschallinM accuses her hairdresser of having turned her into an old woman In this mood, she dismisses everyone Left alone, she reflects on her innocence as a young bride and on the aging woman with a much-too-young lover that she is now She laments the cruelties of life which allow her to grow old before her own eyes Octavian, re-entering, tries to dispel her melancholy and hears with despair that their love affair must end because the Marschallin knows for certain that, sooner or later, he will leave her Hurt by this sudden change of heart, Octavian leaves No sooner has he gone, than the Marschallin tries to call him back Sadly, she orders her little serving boy to deliver the Silver Rose to Count Octavian (Intermission of 15 minutes) Act II Sophie is looking forward to meeting her betrothed for the first time She is overwhelmed when Count Octavian Rofrano arrives, bearing the Silver Rose At first glance, the two young people fall in love with each other When the Baron arrives, the young girl is shocked and repulsed Octavian confronts the Baron with the fact that Sophie is not willing to sacrifice her youth to an old scoundrel Swords are drawn, and the Baron is slightly wounded Faninal, Sophie’s father, demands that Octavian leave and threatens Sophie with banishment to a convent if she refuses to marry the Baron However, after reassuring Sophie, he leaves and enlists the help of the two Italian conspirators Valzacchi and Annina in a new plot The aron,B left alone, makes a remarkably quick recovery when Annina returns with a letter for him from a certain “Mariandel,” inviting him to a secret rendezvous at an inn Happily, the Baron toasts himself and his anticipated pleasures (Intermission of 15 minutes) Act III At a suburban inn, Octavian, again disguised as “Mariandel,” completes the arrangements he has made with the Italian conspirators Soon, Baron Ochs arrives and sits down to wine and dine, only occasionally troubled by the irritating resemblance of “Mariandel” to Octavian At a pre-arranged moment, a veiled woman enters who claims the Baron as her husband and the father of her children Vexed and harassed, the Baron calls for the police However, the Police Commissar, who arrives to investigate, will not believe either in his identity or in what he has to say To extricate himself from the police, the Baron tries to pass off “Mariandel” as his fiancée, Sophie When the conspirators bring in Faninal, who sends for his daughter, the Baron is exposed The arschallinM arrives just in time to “save” Baron Ochs from arrest As a condition, he must abandon his claim to Sophie Octavian has thrown off his “Mariandel” masquerade, and the Baron begins to see through the joke He wonders what to think but is cut short by the Marschallin, who advises him to behave like a cavalier and to think nothing at all The Baron leaves, without paying his bill, of course Left alone, the three express their secret thoughts to themselves: Sophie, her fear of losing Octavian; Octavian, the confusion of his heart; the Marschallin, the striving to give up what she has no right to hold She leaves the two young people to themselves and joins Faninal to persuade him to give his consent to their betrothal Program Notes by Ryan Young It is hard to imagine that after his previous two operas, Salomé (1905) and Elektra (1909), Richard Strauss could still have possessed the ability to scandalize the public and offend the censors, especially with the comparatively mild content of Der Rosenkavalier Nevertheless that is precisely what happened in 1911 when the opera premiered in Dresden, thanks in large part to Strauss’s prelude to the first act, which contains one of the most explicit musical depictions of love-making in the Western canon Indeed, the whooping horn calls at the climax of the prelude retain their power to shock even today When, after the prelude settled into a post-coital calm, the libretto called for the curtain to rise on the 32-year-old Marschallin relaxing in bed with her 17-year-old lover Octavian, that was a step too far for the censors In nearly every early production of the opera, Strauss and Hofmannsthal were required to make some modification to this staging, often either by removing the bed from the stage entirely or by ensuring that the Marschallin came nowhere near the bed during the first act Regardless, so eager was the public to view the spectacle that special trains had to be run from Berlin to Dresden throughout the opera’s 50-performance premiere run CandideConductor:CdConductor: KevinKKev iNin Noe Leonard BernsteinBernstein StageStage Director: CandaceCanC dace EvansEvans SetSeS t & Costume Designer: C.C. DavidDavD id HigginsHiggins Poor Candide. He’s mindless with optimism in what APRIL he has been taught is “the best of all possible worlds.” Bernstein’s treatment of the Voltaire masterpiece in 6, 7 this fast-paced operetta is not to be missed! 13, 14 For tickets, visit the Musical Arts Center Box MAC 8pm Office, (812) 855-7433, or go online to Opera Insights 7pm music.indiana.edu/operaballet. Scandal fades, however, and it is clear that this early sensationalism is not responsible for Rosenkavalier’s enduring success More than a century after its first performance, Rosenkavalier remains Strauss’s most oft-performed opera and indeed one of the most popular works in the operatic canon It is arguably the best work to come out of one of the great partnerships in opera history—that between Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal And yet on paper at least, this opera should not be as popular as it is Much of the humor in Hofmannsthal’s libretto is untranslatable, dependent on subtle nuances of dialect and vocabulary for its meaning Hofmannsthal himself acknowledged this weakness in a letter to Strauss, writing “my libretto certainly has one grave defect; so much of what sets it apart and gives it charm must fade, or almost disappear, in translation ” Nonetheless the opera