[Met Performance] CID:282160



Der Rosenkavalier
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, October 9, 1985




Der Rosenkavalier (299)
Richard Strauss | Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Octavian
Brenda Boozer

Princess von Werdenberg (Marschallin)
Gwyneth Jones

Baron Ochs
Artur Korn

Sophie
Kathleen Battle

Faninal
G?nther Reich

Annina
Claudia Catania

Valzacchi
Robert Nagy

Italian Singer
Dano Raffanti

Marianne
Loretta Di Franco

Mahomet
Efrain Bracero

Princess' Major-domo
Andrea Velis

Orphan
Barbara Bystrom

Orphan
Mary Fercana

Orphan
Karol Teiko

Milliner
Linda Mays

Animal Vendor
John Hanriot

Hairdresser
Sam Cardea

Notary
James Courtney

Leopold
Erbert Aldridge

Lackey
Frank Coffey

Lackey
Ross Crolius

Lackey
Richard Firmin

Lackey
Dennis Steff

Faninal's Major-domo
Michael Best

Innkeeper
Charles Anthony

Police Commissioner
Spiro Malas


Conductor
James Levine







Review 1:

Review of Martin Mayer in Opera

All grumbling was stilled on October 9, however, when Levine conducted the most beautiful "Der Rosenkavalier" it has ever been my privilege to hear, and I go back to Fritz Busch and Szell and Reiner and Kempe. The detailing of the score in the orchestra was nothing less than astonishing: all night long I was hearing bits I did not know were there (piccolo phrases, timpani beats, a solo cello passage) in a piece I thought I knew. Without for a moment losing the pulse or yielding to schmalz, Levine played with the piece lovingly, oh-so-carefully, retarding here, accelerating there, swelling, whispering, blaring, caressing. I don't think I have ever seen a New York audience so quietly enraptured as the crowd that sat dead silent, not a cough in the house, as Levine made something more than it really is out of the little ditty of the lovers at the end of the opera. We all hated to have it end.

The news was Brenda Boozer's first Octavian at the house. There will be many more. The voice is huge and handsome throughout its large range; the appearance is correctly boyish; the ability to concentrate and act through a long evening (almost all of it on stage) is most impressive. Gwyneth Jones, carefully in control except for one unfortunate moment at the start of the trio, was a very moving and, of course, beautiful Marschallin. Kathleen Battle was a satisfying Sophie, though in general just a little small scale. Artur Korn was a standard-issue lecherous Ochs; G?nter Reich was a wonderful Faninal, and Loretta Di Franco sang Marianne's announcement of Rofrano's arrival as well as I have ever heard in an opera house; and it's hard, too. Someone, the producer Bruce Donnell or the assistant stage director Pamela McRae, did a bang-up job of getting the cast fully in character and always related to each other. Congratulations all round, but I don't imagine anyone involved will resent the first cut to Levine.



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