“Ja, such dir den Schnee vom vergangenen Jahr! “
Der Rosenkavalier is perhaps the most poignant work of Western civilization, staging the
domination of passions, the awareness of time passing inexorably and the melancholy that follows. Every time we listen in a theater to the fifth opera composed by Richard Strauss, we are stunned by the beauty of the music and the extraordinary libretto by the great Austrian writer Hugo von Hoffmanstahl . A Viennese masquerade, which between waltzes and disguises narrates us about the painful renunciation of the Princess Marshallin, who lets her seventeen-year-old lover Octavian fall into the arms of the young and pretty Sophie, betrothed to the vulgar and penniless Baron Ochs.
In the greatest Milanese theatre, this opera has a particularly glorious history, having seen over the year get on the podium, prodigious performers such as Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Carlos Kleiber and Richard Strauss himself who conducted performances in Italian in 1928. Therefore, the debut of Kirill Petrenko, conductor of the Berliner Philarmoniker and great Straussian interpreter, was highly awaited for this production. The Russian naturalized Austrian conductor, literally bewitched the listeners, with one of the most sensational musical readings of those heard in recent decades in the enormous Piermarini hall. There is no detail of the score that is not highlighted, in a flow of sound that enhances the melancholy but at the same time highlights all the modernity of the musical writing. The accompaniment of the Marshallin’s great monologue in the first act “Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar Ding” is thrilling and breathtaking and the sound rendition of the great trio that closes the opera is magnificient, culminating with a crescendo that shakes the listeners to the depths of their soul.
La Scala Orchestra, under the baton of the “Ronaldo” of the Conductor, has
rarely played so well, offering the public a dense and sensual sound, but still Italian in the brilliant
colour of the strings and the brass.
The cast assembled for the occasion was good and homogeneous, even if not memorable.
Krassimira Stoyanova presents her famous Marshallin again, with a full and authentically
Straussian timbre, and an excavation of the character that is very attentive to every single word
and accent. The Bulgarian soprano manages to exploit to her advantage the infinite palette of
colors that the great Petrenko offers her. A very classy performance!
The American mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsay takes on the role “en travesti” of Octavian , with a
clear timbre and good stage presence, but hers is a slightly monotonous performance lacking of
personality. Better is Sabine Divieilhe’s Sophie, with a very bright high register and an excellent
rendering of the young girl’s naive but sensual character.
The best in field is Günther Groissböck, who outlines a Baron Ochs far from traditional
stereotypes. His is a character who is still young and virile, rude but not excessively caricatural,
with great stage presence. His singing in perfect Viennese dialect was phenomenal.
A true luxury was the presence of Pietro Pretti as Italian tenor, who managed easily the terrible
tessitura of the aria “di rigore armato il seno”, sung with great confidence and audacity.
The staging is the famous one by Harry Kupfer, created for the Salzburg festival, which sets the
opera in early 20th century Vienna, against the backdrop of beautiful black and white projections of the city iconic places, from the Hofburg to the Ringstraße, to the Prater.
The performance was a great succes, with triumph and ovations from the loggione for the
phenomenal Kirill Petrenko.
