Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
by Herbert Wernicke, Brian Large
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Actor: Diana Damrau, Franz Hawlata, Jonas Kaufmann, Renée Fleming, Sophie KochDirector: Brian Large, Herbert Wernicke
Writer: Richard Strauss
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); German (Original Language), DTS 5.1
Format: AC-3, Classical, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
DVD Release Date: 2009-10-06
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Decca
DVD Reviews of Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
DVD Review: Christian Thielemann should start putting his foot down.
Summary: 4 Stars
The deathless army of fLemmings will need to go out and buy this dvd of 'Der Rosenkavalier' if for no other reason than their darling Renée is in full flow, as Renée, not necessarily as the Feldmarschallin. Those aforementioned soldiers of glamor need not read any further because you aren't going to like what I have to say.
For the other 50% of the opera loving world, read on. First and foremost on my mind is why does Christian Thielemann put up with this sort of nonsense? He's the greatest living exponent of 19th and early 20th century German opera and yet he appears again and again in the pit facing the worst kind of vapidity and the most stylishly mish-mashed productions. At least in this production he has a good cast of singers, a fine orchestra in an excellent acoustic in Baden-Baden's Festival hall and a sensible film director who doesn't dwell to long on either close-ups (except on HerSelf) or full stage pictures in the more intimate moments.
I won't/can't enumerate the countless felicities and nuances of Thielemann's splendid leadership. Suffice it to say this is great Strauss conducting in the same league as Clemens Krauss, Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan (Thielemann's mentor).
As for the production, all I can say is that Karajan would not even have stepped foot into the lavatory of this festival hall in the face of this mess of a show. Yes, it is pretty to look at, for awhile, but is such a distillation of eras and styles as to make the mind shut down from too much boggling over what the hell it is taking in for processing.
Herbert Wernicke's sets and his concept are a mild form of regietheatre that does not offend, but merely annoy enough times to set up a red rash of irritation in one's being. It's impossible to determine which era this story is supposed to take place within. Strauss and von Hofmannsthal set it in 18th century Vienna. Wernicke has set it in some alternative universe of overlapping historical periods ranging from the original 18th century (footmen and Oktavian's first act costumes and the carriages in Act 3) all the way to the 1920s-the gowns in all three acts. The costuming is so perplexing as to distract from the dramatic action, thereby lessening the impact of the three great scenes, the Marschallin's monologue in Act 1, the presentation of the rose in Act 2 and the great trio and duet in Act 3.
The sets themselves are rather ingenious, with the use of mirrors (not always successful), but the false ceilings resembling skylights in a railway terminus or vast office lighting in a government bureaucracy, detracting from the intimacy of this opera. The luxury of the Marschallin's world is conveyed nicely with lots of mahogany and gold tea services and satin bed clothing etc. It is the lack of direction and, obversely, occasionally the over-direction of the singers that lowers the standard of this production.
In Act 1 The Great One would have benefited from a production that straight-jacketed her natural personality to a much greater degree than does Wernicke's, which allows Renée to Be HerSelf at all times; tossing her hair, batting her eyes, looking up and to the side (a trademark gesture) to indicate depth, and generally acting like an aging airhead with thoughts no deeper than what shade of lipstick she should wear to the next levée. She might have benefitted from a big powdered wig, a black beauty mark on the tip of her nose and an enormous crinoline dress to mute her natural tendency to swan about like a New Jersey housewife in an expensive hotel in 'Vegas.
Act 1 is a blatant vanity display for the beloved diva and her fans will lap it up. My response was more in the nature of wanting to throw something heavy at the television screen. Her smug, self-regarding 'performance' sucks the life out of anything any of her fellow artists try to do in terms of projection of their characters, not their egos.
There is much repulsive nonsense in Act 1. Renée blowing kisses at Oktavian, tossing her hair; Oktavian (as Mariandel) messing with an oversize bolster in a most obvious manner. And when Ochs enters (a very good Franz Hawlata in lederhosen for some reason), I thought the channel had suddenly switched to an old rerun of the 'Carol Burnett Show' with Fleming going through a sitcom style comedy routine with Harvey Korman on the sofa. And what a snarky Marschallin it is who rolls her eyes disparagingly at the poor orphans, how mean-spirited of her! Fleming's great lady is a jumped-up middle class snob, not a true aristocrat. This is all a great shame because when I shut my eyes and simply listened I heard some beautiful singing coming from her. It's pretty shallow stuff but the voice is unarguably beautiful, though there are signs of trouble here and there. But these could simply be the effects of time passing on the vocal chords. You'd think the words in the Act 1 monologue, which goes for naught here, would have meant a little more to this singer under the circumstances. The direction of the singers in this act is on the level of a high school production.
Jonas Kaufmann makes his glam appearance as the Italian Singer (euphemistically speaking). He certainly is a handsome son-of-a-gun and he has a very beautiful, hauntingly covered vocal sound. Alas that he wasn't really singing 'In fernam Land' from Lohengrin, which is not really how this charming Italian ditty is supposed to sound in this opera. Oh, well. He's pure candy for the eye and the ear; he's dressed in a 1940s mafia tuxedo, just to keep you up on Kaleidoscopic fashion parade on display in this show.
Sophie Koch is very good as Oktavian but she's odd looking. She overacts but looks very convincing as a young man in his jodhpurs. In Act 2 Oktavian is decked out in an all white glittery tuxedo with top hat, looking like a girl in a Busby Berkeley chorus line making her way elegantly down the stairs. Wernicke makes poor little Sophie go UP the stairs to Oktavian, rather ungallant I thought, to receive the silver rose. The direction of the singers in this scene is awful. Damrau is directed to move like Olympia in 'The Tales of Hofmann' and Oktavian takes on the spirit of a marionette, it's all slightly disturbing and devoid of the touching charm that usually invests this scene. However, Diana Damrau is magnificent and the perfect embodiment of the bourgeois ingenue. She and Thielemann, alone, are worth the price of this film.
This is yet another case of wishing that a performance had been released as a cd rather than a film. I don't think Wernicke's sets were really worth preserving for posterity, they are really rather forgettable; sterile in an extravagant way. And with a purely aural Renée/Marschallin this might have been one of the very great R'kavalier recordings; as it is, it's a very frustrating R'kavalier film.
If you've gotten this far and haven't activated the 'no help at all' button for this review, then think it over a bit before purchasing this item. Christian Thielemann will probably make a cd of this opera in the future, he's still only in his early 50s so he has time barring his getting hit by the bus, as my mother always warned me about. The only risk is that Diana Damrau may not still be singing Sophie or at least singing it as exquisitely as she does in this film. I suppose I must recommend that all Thielemann/Strauss/Damrau lovers buy this as well. You may not like Act I at all if you are one of the silent horde who have an automatic gag response to Renée Fleming at her most self-absorbed. But we have fast forward and skip buttons to alleviate the stress. Or better still, turn your back to the screen and just listen.
Rating this is extremely difficult. I'd give it 5-stars for Thielemann/Damrau/the orchestra/the camera work and the sound. I'd give it 4 stars for the balance of the cast and Fleming on vocal performance alone, and 3-stars for Fleming's stage performance and the production. So I must compromise with a 4-Star.
I will remain loyal to the two traditional versions by Carlos Kleiber and the Semyon Bychkov/Robert Carsen version for a more revisionist approach.
Oh, and one last thought: Kill the damned Pierrot! I suppose this was another case of modern political correctness and the fear surrounding any violation of same that made Herr Wernicke jettison poor Mohammed the charming Moorish page boy and turn his character into ... (choke, splutter, gag) a MIME in a Pierrot outfit. WHY? 'But, he's so cool, like Renée'.
Description of Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
Renée Fleming finally appears on DVD in one of her greatest roles--the Marschallin, in Richard Strauss's magnificent comedy of ever-changing love, Der Rosenkavalier. Her peerless performance is supported by "a galactic cast" (conductor Christian Thielemann), which includes Diana Damrau, Sophie Koch, Franz Hawlata and Jonas Kaufmann as the Italian Tenor. Filmed in January 2009 at the Baden-Baden Festival, the production features a stylish pastiche of vast mirrors, Viennese Baroque decorations, Hollywood-esque staircases and early 20th century evening wear. Renée's eminent Strauss collaborator on her recent Four Last Songs album, Christian Thielemann, joins her once again, conducting the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. "...this performance with Christian Thielemann and the Münchner Philharmoniker is luscious, supremely confident, lived-in and well thought out...Fleming is in glorious voice, pouring out Strauss's long phrases with voluminous generosity and fearless commitment to the extremes of range." --Opera News on Four Last SongsBestsellers in DVD
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