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"Der Rosenkavalier" always has a wise Princess because composer Strauss and librettist von Hoffmannsthal put her there. "Once we are heedless of time, suddenly it is everything," says Strauss' great lady, still beautiful but aging.

The variable conductor, so important in this score filled with the most subtle waltzes in opera, is not always so smart. But last night at Metropolitan Opera, maestro Karl Boehm, in the first performance of the opera this season, made time everything, but with a happier ending than the Marschallin's; this is considering time, tempo and rhythm all blended into an elixir. It's based in exact musical science, but ends up alchemy.

For the superb "Rosenkavalier" that Boehm directed last night is no accident. Years of apprenticeship and experience swim in the cauldron of big gifts. When it mixes with the proper music for the conductor's taste temperament, then you can get what happened: the greatest living interpreter of Richard Strauss.

Adjuncts Helped

Time was everything, yet we were heedless of it, because, to paraphrase Prince Hal, Boehm gave us the grand illusion that the good jest would last forever. Fortunately the adjuncts to the musical score helped and heightened the drama. Robert O'Hearn's sets and costumes are elegant. Nathaniel Merrill's staging makes the human equation balance and unbalance with slight-of-hand naturalness. Empathy was easy.

The cast didn't register as the greatest in sheer singing, but in characterization there was style and validity - Leonie Rysanek as the Princess sang well, though not brilliantly, but she portrayed the emotional nuance of the part believably. Christa Ludwig was a near-perfect Octavian - a knockout of a handsome young man complicated only by too much passion. Walter Berry's baritone voice is definitely not "in depth" for the bass role of Baron Ochs, but he acts the part without caricature, He makes the old fool more realistic as a suitor for Sophie than the usual oversized and voiced lecher.

Popp Excellent as Sophie

For once, Sophie was really well cast. Lucia Popp looked a Monroe and this was all to the good. She was nervous in the beginning (this was her first Met Sophie) and a little unsteady, but she warmed as she continued. Her voice does have body and quality for the part.

Nicolai Gedda made the short and ungrateful role of the Singer (the man who must live or die by his one aria) into a stunning scene. He was aided by Boehm's suitably deliberate tempo and Merrill's on-stage placement. He lived, to say the least. In supporting roles, Mildred Miller as Annina and Judith DePaul as Marianne, were excellent.

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