Der Rosenkavalier

DER ROSENKAVALIER, A TREASURE OF GERMAN OPERA

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Considered one of the jewels of twentieth-century opera, Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier is a work that perfectly combines orchestral richness and vocal delicacy. 

Composed in 1911, this operetta with its nostalgic yet light-hearted overtones is distinguished by its dazzling musical writing, in which the female voices shine sublimely, particularly in the famous duets and trios that punctuate the work. Never before had opera achieved such harmony between musical complexity and vocal elegance, an unprecedented achievement for Strauss.

The libretto, by the great Viennese poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, adds a moving and subtle literary dimension. Set in an imaginary eighteenth-century Vienna, Der Rosenkavalier is a work of refined lightness in which humour and melancholy blend with rare finesse. The plot revolves around the Maréchale, a woman of Viennese high society, who sees her young lover, Octavian, fall in love with the beautiful Sophie, who is promised to another man, the coarse Baron Ochs. 

Gracefully accepting the passage of time and the inevitable end of her relationship with Octavian, the Maréchale observes this budding love with tenderness and melancholy, making way for a new generation.