{"id":45049,"date":"2017-05-07T13:29:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T17:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=45049"},"modified":"2017-05-07T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T22:40:10","slug":"scrutiny-renee-fleming-bids-farewell-to-the-marschallin-in-new-met-der-rosenkavalier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/05\/07\/scrutiny-renee-fleming-bids-farewell-to-the-marschallin-in-new-met-der-rosenkavalier\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Ren\u00e9e Fleming Bids Farewell To The Marschallin In New Met Der Rosenkavalier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Strauss:
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, MET Opera, 2017 (Photo: Ken Howard)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier. Elina Garanca, Ren\u00e9e Fleming, Erin Morley, Gunther Groissb\u00f6ck. Sebastian Weigle, conductor. Robert Carsen, stage director. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. May 5, 2017.<\/h3>\n

NEW YORK CITY \u2014 One of the biggest splashes of the current Met season is a new production of Der Rosenkavalier<\/em>. It replaces the beloved, long-serving one by Nathaniel Merrill and Robert O\u2019Hearn that dates to the early days of the New Met \u2014 you are talking about nearly fifty years, folks. While still handsome, it had started to look rather dowdy and frayed in recent revivals. When it was announced that it would be retired, the traditionalists cried foul. But even the Marschallin is wise enough to realize that sometimes you just have to let go.<\/p>\n

This new version is directed by Canadian Robert Carsen. It\u2019s not truly new but reworked, the original having premiered in Salzburg in 2004 starring Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka. Preserved on a commercial DVD, it had fine singing but the production, then as now, drew polarized opinions.\u00a0 It was adapted for Covent Garden last December, before arriving at the Met this spring with a largely different cast except for Ren\u00e9e Fleming.<\/p>\n

Fleming had earlier indicated that this show would mark her farewell to opera. Never mind that she\u2019s now protesting that she said no such thing. A prima donna\u2019s prerogative perhaps?\u00a0 In any case, her operatic performances have dwindled. I went to the Semperoper Dresden in 2014 to hear her Arabella and the Countess Madeleine. She sang Madeleine and cancelled Arabella. As far as we know, there\u2019s nothing operatic in the standard repertoire scheduled beyond this Marschallin.<\/p>\n

It is a wise farewell choice.\u00a0 Der Rosenkavalier<\/em> is Strauss\u2019s supreme meditation on love, aging and the passage of time. One of the most finely drawn female character in all opera, the Marschallin is an ideal farewell vehicle for prima donnas of a certain age. I was fortunate to witness both Elisabeth S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m and Evelyn Lear sing this role in their respective Met farewells. Fleming, the authentic American prima donna of our time, certainly has the star power to make it memorable.<\/p>\n

If attendance at the 4000-seat Met is down these days, you\u2019d never have guessed, as it was sold out in the performance I saw. What a striking contrast to the old-fashioned Nathaniel Merrill-Robert O\u2019Hearn production! Carsen has time-shifted it from mid-18th\u2013<\/span>century to 1911 Vienna, quite a master stroke. It has created a completely different \u201cfeel\u201d to the piece, with WWI looming in the not-too-distant future. The Hapsburgs\u2019 long gone and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its last legs. It casts a spell of darkness to the proceedings.<\/p>\n

Act One is still essentially conventional, but Act Two opens with two cannons on stage, in what would be the house of Faninal! \u00a0Carsen\u2019s vision of the nouveau riche<\/em> Faninal (fabulously played and sung by Markus Br\u00fcck) is someone who has made a killing \u2014 pun intended \u2013 as an arms merchant. Craving status, he wants his daughter Sophie to marry into title. This re-imagining works surprisingly well. That said, the heavy artilleries, the enormous militaristic Grecian frieze, and the huge number of soldiers on stage run counter to the Romanticism of the Presentation of the Rose. Carsen\u2019s rather awkward solution is to have waltzing couples in the background. Using many silent extras appears to be a Carsen trademark, something he used effectively in his Munich Ariadne auf Naxos<\/em> some ten years ago.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the most radical departure from tradition is Act Three. Instead of the nondescript inn, it takes place in a brothel, complete with a drag band (!), and a drag Innkeeper, valiantly played by Met stalwart Tony Stevenson. \u00a0Octavian, in disguise as Mariandel, turns the table on Ochs with some outrageous roughhousing, eliciting plenty of snickers from the audience. This teenage boy with the raging hormones looks a tad too comfortable pretending to be a woman! \u00a0After the Final Trio, Octavian and Sophie make out on the bed, a replica of the Marschallin\u2019s. If you had caught the opening night broadcast, you would have noticed the lusty boos for Carsen and his team. But on May 5, I only heard cheers.<\/p>\n

Whatever one\u2019s feelings for the production, musically it was exquisite. Fleming might have lost a decibel or two, and the occasional chest tone at the start could be a bit raw, but she remains a formidable Marschallin, a role that fits her like kit gloves. Lovely mezza voce<\/em>, and the treacherous opening line of the Final Trio was perfectly delivered. She received thunderous ovations, totally deserved. The Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca, at the height of her game, was a boyish and impetuous Octavian, her gorgeous, well-modulated mezzo never sounded better. She also has the requisite volume for the climaxes, sounding considerably bigger than Fleming in their scenes together. Garanca\u2019s irrepressible Mariandel in Act Three, looking for all like Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel<\/em>, was beyond hilarious.<\/p>\n

Instead of the archetypal superannuated, fat slob of a nobleman, Austrian baritone Gunther Groissb\u00f6ck\u2019s Baron Ochs is youthful and handsome, undeniably against type. Sophie might well have fallen for him if only he weren\u2019t such a boor! Possessing fine acting chops, Groissb\u00f6ck\u2019s Ochs is among the best I\u2019ve seen. \u00a0He sang beautifully too, although his lowest notes weren\u2019t as firm as I had expected. Another standout was the Italian Singer of tenor Matthew Polenzani. In terrific voice, his \u201cDi rigori armato\u201d was sensational. His impersonation of Caruso was spot-on. Giving an autographed 78 rpm record to the Marschallin before his aria \u2014 what an inspired stroke!\u00a0 On the other hand, having Ochs lounging on Marschallin\u2019s bed was a bit over the top.<\/p>\n

Soprano Erin Morley was a lovely Sophie, a role she has sung beautifully at the Met in 2013. Her smooth, well-focused, crystalline light soprano was a real pleasure, all the way up to a high C sharp. All the supporting roles were expertly taken \u2014 to have distinguished veterans like Alan Oke and Helene Schneiderman (in her Met debut) as the Intriguers was luxury casting. Dramatic soprano Susan Neves, a noted Abigaille and Odabella, took on the small role of Marianne, showing that her high C\u2019s are still formidable if a tad strident. Sebastian Weigle, a fine Wagner-Strauss conductor, led the wonderful Met Orchestra in a sublime reading of the score.\u00a0 All in all, a truly memorable evening. Two more shows, on May 9 and 13. Everything is now sold out, but you can catch the May 13 performance in selected Cineplex cinemas<\/a>. \u00a0If you are a Fleming fan, you wouldn\u2019t want to miss her last Marschallin.<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph So on Richard Strauss’s \u201cDer Rosenkavalier,\u201d at the Met, starring Ren\u00e9e Fleming as the Marschallin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":45055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,43,52],"tags":[6097,2207,2804,2837,4981],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/05\/ROSE_0080a-L.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bIB","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45049"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45071,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45049\/revisions\/45071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45049"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=45049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}