Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) is a 206-minute studio album of Richard Strauss's opera, performed by a cast led by Jules Bastin, José Carreras, Derek Hammond-Stroud, Evelyn Lear, Frederica von Stade, and Ruth Welting with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Edo de Waart. It was released in 1977.
Contents
Background
The album presents the score without any cuts. It was recorded shortly after its musicians had performed the opera theatrically at the Holland Festival in 1976. The Holland production was staged by the Netherlands Opera Foundation and produced by John Cox, with décor and costumes designed by Elizabeth Dalton.
Recording
The album was recorded using analogue technology in July 1976 at De Doelen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Packaging
The covers of the LP and cassette releases of the album feature a photograph of Lear, von Stade and Welting in their Holland Festival costumes. The cover of Philips's CD release of the album, designed under the art direction of Ton Friesen, features a photograph by Hans Morren of a rose silver-plated by Juwelier Fischer of Vienna.
Critical reception
William Mann reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in August 1977, comparing it with rival versions conducted by Herbert von Karajan and Georg Solti. Collectors might be lured to the new recording, he thought, by Frederica von Stade's Octavian, "a lovely reading by a favourite young mezzo". Musically, she sang with a tone that was ample, even and focused, and was as meticulous in her ensemble work as a violist in a great string quartet. Dramatically, she was equally effective in every chapter of Octavian's story – her outburst of anger with the Marschallin was "explosive", her banter with Sophie "perfectly delightful", her feigned inebriation as Mariandel "lovely to hear as well as comic". As Octavian's mistress, Evelyn Lear had "a timbre like old gold, a tenderness and teasing humour, many individual inflexions that recall no other Marschallin". Her singing fell short of technical perfection, but her acting was "attractive and skilful" and all her most important passages were executed "beautifully". Ruth Welting was guilty of a few vocal lapses too, perpetrating the occasional "flutter" above the stave, but her Sophie managed to be self-assertive while remaining "sweetly girlish". Jules Bastin endowed Ochs with a voice that was generous and equal to all Strauss's onerous demands. He deserved praise for his "attack and savory resonance, his smooth cantabile and his ripe enunciation of the text", though Solti's Manfred Jungwirth was both more accurate and funnier in his handling of Ochs's peasant idiolect. Derek Hammond-Stroud was a good Faninal overall, even if he sounded too young to be Welting's father and botched one note at his first appearance. José Carreras's Italian Singer was "too noisy". The many minor roles were all performed competently by a legion of Netherlanders. De Waart's Dutch orchestra, likewise, was unequivocally good. Its woodwinds were "crisp and savory", its brass "unusually firm and together and plump", its strings "active" and "stylish". De Waart sometimes set a pace that was too slow – in Ochs's climactic routing or in the duet "Mit Ihren Augen voll von Tränen", for instance – but his preludes were incandescent and his tempi in general "suitable and spirited". "The swagger of Ochs's entry in the second act [and] the elegance of the strings in the Letter Scene" were particularly worthy of note. Philips's production team had chosen to balance singers and instrumentalists without favouring either over the other, and had resisted the temptation to deploy "sound-effects or 'rhubarb' noises". In sum, whether the new album was preferable to its competitors was a matter of personal taste. Karajan's slightly abridged version was "enchanting" and "sparkling"; Solti's, complete, offered "unceasing brilliance" and Régine Crespin's Marschallin; de Waart's, also complete, was "less vivacious" than its predecessors but had von Stade's Octavian and the "confidence and style and operatic personality" that came from its theatrical origins.
Track listing: CD1
Richard Strauss (!864–1949)
Der Rosenkavalier (Dresden, 1911), Kömodie für Musik in drei Aufzügen (Comedy for Music in three Acts); libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929)
Act One
1 (3:35) Prelude
2 (7:56) Wie du warst, (Octavian, Marschallin)
3 (4:10) Marie Thérès'! (Octavian, Marschallin)
4 (3:36) Quinquin, es ist mein Mann (Marschallin, Octavian, Ochs, Marschallin's Major-domo)
5 (8:34) Selbstverständlich empfängt mich Ihro Gnaden (Ochs, Footmen, Marschallin, Marschallin's Major-domo)
6 (6:09) Hat Sie schon einmal mit einem Kavalier (Ochs, Octavian, Marschallin)
7 (3:57) Nein, Er agiert mir gar zu gut (Marschallin, Ochs, Octavian)
8 (2:04) I komm' glei (Octavian, Orphans, Milliner, Animal Seller, Marschallin, Valzacchi)
9 (2:55) Di rigori armato il senno (Singer)
10 (3:12) Als Morgengabe (Ochs, Notary, Singer)
11 (3:55) Mein lieber Hippolyte (Marschallin, Valzacchi, Ochs, Annina)
12 (5:10) Da geht er hin (Marschallin)
13 (6:17) Ach! Du bist wieder da! (Marschallin, Octavian)
Track listing: CD2
Act Two
1 (1:49) Prelude
2 (3:41) In dieser feierlichen Stunden (Sophie, Marianne, Couriers)
3 (7:40) Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren (Octavian, Sophie)
4 (4:02) Ich kenn' ihn schon recht wohl (Sophie, Octavian)
5 (4:01) Jetzt aber kommt mein Herr Zukünftiger (Sophie, Faninal, Octavian, Ochs, Marianne)
6 (3:21) Eh bien! Nun plauder Sie uns eins (Ochs, Sophie, Faninal, Octavian, Marianne)
7 (3:29) Wird kommen über Nacht (Ochs, Octavian, Marianne, Faninal)
8 (6:35) Wird Sie das Mannsbild da heiraten (Octavian, Sophie, Faninal's Major-domo, Marianne)
9 (5:43) Herr Baron von Lerchenau! (Valzacchi, Annina, Ochs, Sophie, Octavian)
10 (3:10) Mord! Mord! Mein Blut! (Ochs, Ochs's Servants, Annina, Sophie, Faninal's Servants, Octavian, Marianne, Faninal)
11 (4:23) Er muss mich pardonieren (Octavian, Faninal, Sophie, Ochs)
12 (2:21) Is gut! Is gut! Ein Schluck (Ochs, Faninal)
13 (5:21) Da lieg' ich (Ochs, Ochs's Servants)
14 (6:22) Ohne mich, ohne mich, jeder Tag dir so bang (Ochs, Annina)
Track listing: CD3
Act Three
1 (6:52) Prelude and Pantomime
2 (2:35) Hab'n Euer Gnaden noch weitre Befehle? (Landlord, Waiters, Ochs)
3 (5:03) Nein, nein, nein, nein! I trink' kein Wein (Octavian, Ochs)
4 (2:10) Die schöne Musi! (Octavian, Ochs)
5 (6:54) Es ist ja eh all's eins (Octavian, Ochs, Annina, Landlord, Waiters, Children, Valzacchi)
6 (3:52) Halt! Keiner rührt sich! (Commissioner, Valzacchi, Octavian, Ochs, Landlord)
7 (5:19) Zur Stelle! Was wird von mir gewünscht? (Faninal, Ochs, Commissioner, Landlord, Children, Onlookers, Men)
8 (2:17) Sind desto eher in klaren (Ochs, Commissioner, Octavian)
9 (3:01) Muss jetzt partout zu ihr! (Ochs, Landlord, Octavian, Commissioner, Marschallin, Sophie)
10 (7:39) Lass er nur gut sein und verschwind Er (Marschallin, Ochs, Commissioner, Sophie, Octavian)
11 (2:13) Leupold, wir gehn! (Ochs, Annina, Children, Waiters, Landlord, Valzacchi, Musicians, Coachmen, Porter)
12 (7:16) Mein Gott, es war nicht mehr als eine Farce (Sophie, Octavian, Marschallin)
13 (6:09) Marie Thérès'!... Hab mir's gelobt Ihn lieb zu haben (Octavian, Marschallin, Sophie)
Personnel
Evelyn Lear (1926–2012, soprano), Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg, the Marschallin (wife of the Field Marshal)
Frederica von Stade (mezzo-soprano), Octavian Maria Ehrenreich Bonaventura Fernand Hyacinth, Count Rofrano, called Quinquin, a young gentleman of noble family
Jules Bastin (bass), Baron Ochs of Lerchenau
Derek Hammond-Stroud (baritone), Herr von Faninal, a rich merchant, recently ennobled
Ruth Welting (soprano), Sophie von Faninal, his daughter
José Carreras (tenor), a Singer
Nelly Morpurgo (mezzo-soprano), Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin, a Duenna
James Atherton (tenor), Valzacchi, an intriguer
Sophia van Sante (contralto), Annina, his companion
Henk Smit (bass), the Police Commissioner and a Notary
Wouter Goedhardt (tenor), Marschallin's Major-domo
Matthijs Coppens (tenor), Faninal's Major-domo and an Animal Seller
Adriaan van Limpt (tenor), a Landlord
Angela Bello (soprano), a Noble Orphan
Marianne Dieleman (soprano), a Noble Orphan
Thea van der Putten (contralto), a Noble Orphan
Release history
In 1977, Philips released the album as a set of four LPs (catalogue number 6707 030) and a set of cassettes (catalogue number 7699 045)
Both issues were accompanied by a booklet providing notes and a libretto in German and English.
In 1984, Philips issued the album on CD (catalogue number 442 086-2) with a 196-page booklet including photographs of Strauss, von Hofmannsthal, Bastin, Carreras, Lear, von Stade, Hammond-Stroud, Welting and de Waart, reproductions of a page of Strauss's autograph score and a playbill from the opera's première, six photographs of the related Holland Festival production taken by Jaap Pieper, a libretto in German and English, notes by Jean-Jacques Velly in French, notes by Anna Amalie Abert in English, German and Italian and a synopsis by Bernd Delfs in English, French, German and Italian.
The album was reissued on CD by Decca in 2003 (catalogue number 473 361-2DOC3), by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra's own label in 2011 (catalogue number RPVR 2011-1) and by Brilliant Classics in 2012.