A perfect ‘Rosenkavalier’ at Garsington

What a joy this was. To see Rosenkavalier as Richard Strauss intended it, without the slant that modern opera directors so often love to impose, was a treat. When he first created the opera in 1911, no-one had any idea of the cataclysm to come three years later. Yet if we see it, quite rightly, as recreating a lost world, so did Strauss and his famous librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. For us this may reflect the time of its composition preceding the Great War; but they, unaware of what would happen, looked back to the rule of Maria Theresa, archduchess of Austria and Empress of the Habsburg lands from 1740 until her death in 1780. In fact the main character in this opera, The Marschallin (wife of the Field Marshall), is herself named Marie Thérèse, Princess von Werdenberg. It is Strauss’s homage to Mozart, and I found myself thinking of his Marriage of Figaro, composed in 1786. But to my taste this is better and the staging, co-produced with Irish National Opera and Santa Fe Opera, first appeared at Garsington in 2021.

The main characters are the Marschallin, her lover Octavian, and Sophie, daughter of the wealthiest arms manufacturer in the capital of the greatest power of continental Europe. He has money to throw around but seeks the social status that remains the preserve of the aristocracy. His plan is to marry his daughter Sophie into it, and she is more than willing, having a cloth inscribed with the Austrian nobility, including of course Octavian, Count Rofrano, whose many names she knows better than he does himself.

Of course the nobility always contains a few clots, in this case Baron Ochs von Lerchenau, to whom Sophie is to be married. She has never met him but as his name suggests he has little imagination outside the fulfilment of his own desires, in this case the immense dowry that Sophie von Faninal will bring. The Marschallin is horrified by her bumbling cousin, and although wishing not to lose Octavian as a lover, realises she must let go and approves the young lady’s betrothal to him, after she has absolutely rejected Baron Ochs. Sophie’s father must approve this new arrangement, but he is so set on her marrying the Baron that he cannot see the obvious, until the Marschallin offers to drive him home in her own carriage. His dreams of connecting with the aristocracy despite his own clumsy efforts are finally fulfilled, and the opera ends with a glorious conclusion.

All this is interspersed with marvellous interludes, and Hofmannsthal’s clever libretto includes wonderful allusions such as the Marschallin’s take on the mysteries of time (Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar’ Ding). Twice the age of Sophie, she is feeling the pangs of being cast aside, but realises she will one day become an old lady. Sadly Hofmannsthal did not live to old age — he died in his late forties — and Strauss lost this most inspiring librettist. The Nazis would anyway have forced Hofmannsthal, a Jew, into exile or worse.

Garsington’s production by Bruno Ravella is absolutely not to be missed, particularly with the excellent cast this year: Matilda Sterby as a Marschallin of superb vocal quality, Niamh O’Sullivan as a beautifully voiced Octavian, and Soraya Mafi as a clear voiced Sophie. Their wonderful trio under the baton of Finnegan Downie Dear was a joy to hear, and the bass Ochs of Andreas Bauer Kanabas was sheer delight. The Italian tenor of Egor Zhuravskii was superb, and those intriguers Annina (Siân Griffiths) and Valzacchi (Robert Murray) were wonderful fun. Excellent designs by Gary McCann except that Sophie’s Act 1 dress and shoes were too tarty to befit a young lady just out of Convent School.

Garsington’s Rosenkavalier is as close to perfection as one is liable to get, and avoids the idiosyncrasies that some directors like to push in favour of their own professional advancement. As I heard more than one audience member say on the way out, this is the best Rosenkavalier I’ve ever seen.

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