[Met Performance] CID:136040



Der Rosenkavalier
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, November 26, 1943




Der Rosenkavalier (91)
Richard Strauss | Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Octavian
Ris? Stevens

Princess von Werdenberg (Marschallin)
Irene Jessner

Baron Ochs
Emanuel List

Sophie
Eleanor Steber

Faninal
Walter Olitzki

Annina
Hertha Glaz

Valzacchi
John Garris

Italian Singer
Kurt Baum

Marianne
Thelma Votipka

Mahomet
Lina Duse

Princess' Major-domo
Emery Darcy

Orphan
Maxine Stellman

Orphan
Mona Paulee

Orphan
Thelma Altman

Milliner
Lillian Raymondi

Animal Vendor
Lodovico Oliviero

Hairdresser
Michael Arshansky

Notary
Gerhard Pechner

Leopold
Ludwig Burgstaller

Faninal's Major-domo
John Dudley

Police Commissioner
Lorenzo Alvary


Conductor
George Szell


Director
Lothar Wallerstein

Set Designer
Hans Kautsky

Costume Designer
Alfred Roller





Der Rosenkavalier received five performances this season.

Review 1:

Review in PM

Baron Ochs vs. Sentimentality

That sentimental, affecting, vulgar and enormously skillful opera "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss came back to the Metropolitan Friday night under a new conductor, George Szell. He must have been able to give the opera more rehearsal time than it has enjoyed in recent years, for it went with a fresh smoothness and sheen. It also went with lilt and with drama, and a nostalgic phrasing of the waltz tunes that brought a catch to the throat again and again.

Lacking a great and warm personality, such as Lotte Lehmann's, in the role of the Princess, the opera is likely to be dominated by the Baron Ochs, when he is portrayed by so authentic and convincing an actor as Emanuel List. And when Baron Ochs dominates the scene - as he did most of Friday night - the essential Teutonic boorishness and cruelty of the tale became almost unbearable, especially when contrasted with the concomitant sentimentality.

Not that Irene Jessner was anything but competent. She sang the music of the Princess quite well enough, but only lacked the great dignity and warmth which can make that lady more important than her title. Together with Rise Stevens as Octavian and Eleanor Steber as Sophie, she made the final trio a thing of real beauty.

The lesser roles were all well taken, and Kurt Baum received an ovation for his anonymous first-act tenor aria.



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