Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier / Gwyneth Jones, Brigitte Fassbaender, Lucia Popp, Manfred Jungwirth, Benno Kusche, Carlos Kleiber, Munich Opera

Well...I wouldn't usually presume to write a review because while I love opera I haven't seen a live performance in many years. I used to see the Met every year (Washington D.C. isn't so far and if I didn't care to go to New York they often came to the Kennedy Center). I chance to be widely traveled and often saw La Scala as a young man, both in Milan and Verona. And I have lots of CDs of course. I can't remember anything about the first performance of Rosenkavalier I saw, even where it was...probably La Scala. Except one thing...surprise and mild displeasure at Ottavian being a woman, which was obtrusively clear.This Rosenkavalier is different. Fassbaender is obviously a woman certainly, but she is a marvelous actor. I am mostly gay, and cannot get much of the frisson Strauss intended from having two women on the stage, so having an Ottavian who is willing to forgo that and act like a boy is important to me. In this performance I could suspend disbelief. I thought Jones, Jungworth and Fassbaender were as good as you could possibly want. I wasn't impressed with Popp but I am sure I will be when I watch the opera again, because I always am with that marvelous singer (although before this it was always immediate, but then the sound on my television is not as good as it could be and for that matter my hearing is only intermittently as good as it was.). The orchestra was perfect...the performance has a tension that has you hanging on every note.I recommend this highly, but I am sure you can recognize that I have limitations as a reviewer.I think it is reasonably apparent that I love opera, so perhaps you are wondering why I have not seen a live performance in many years. It is because I got married. In my late thirties I wanted to have children, courted an intelligent young woman, and together we saw many many operas. When we were married, part of my scheme for our honeymoon was to see more. After a trip to Hatteras for fishing, and before a climax at Istanbul, we went to the Met, a box of course. The first opera was Macbetto...I know it's mediocre but I love it. The witches appeared, my eyes were full of tears at their opening notes, and I heard snores. My wife was fast asleep. Not that it was a bad performance--it was wonderful. But she had never had any interest in opera, and after sitting through forty or so she was married so why fake it? But I was traumatized and didn't even see the other two I had paid for. I'm divorced now, after thirty years, but spent the post divorce time in Florida and Turkey, where opera is not big. Still, perhaps I will see you at the Met.

I’ve had this DVD on the shelf for some time, and I finally got around to watching it. Good idea! It immediately joined my two favorite video “Rosenkavaliers” (the late-50s Salzburg film with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Sena Jurinac, Anneliese Rothenberger, and Otto Edelmann, under Karajan; and the 1994 Vienna production with Felicity Lott, Anne Sophie von Otter, Barbara Bonney, and Kurt Moll, also under Carlos Kleiber).Rosenkavalier was perhaps Kleiber’s favorite opera, and both his recordings are wonderful in their dramatic pacing, emotional understanding, and mastery of orchestral detail. His younger self is a bit more impulsive, with faster tempos.The big surprise in this production was Gwyneth Jones. She was a great singing actress, but sometimes her singing wasn’t so good. Happily, this is not the case here. She does the best singing I’ve heard from her, and she shows a complete mastery of the Marschallin’s complex character. Neither she nor Lott can equal Schwarzkopf’s unique sophistication in her greatest role, but the both come close in their own ways.Brigitte Fassbaender is not my favorite Octavian. She seems a bit too “mannish”, more like a modern teenager than an 18th-century one. This is especially true when she plays the disguised chambermaid and galumphs too much. But she sings beautifully. I prefer von Otter’s poise and grace; and as for Jurinac, she is so into the character that after a couple of minutes one completely forgets that she’s a woman.Sophie is usually rather uninteresting, despite the wonderful music she has to sing. But Lucia Popp finds all sorts of interesting detail and makes her a fully rounded character. When you add her silvery voice and physical beauty, she has to be the definitive Sophie.Manfred Jungwirth is a fine Baron Ochs. He has a really beautiful voice and isn’t afraid to use it, keeping the low-comedy shtick well in control.All the smaller parts are well cast (the Annina is especially fetching) and the young Francisco Araiza does himself proud with the tenor aria. The sets and costumes are gorgeous.Rosenkavalier is an opera that simply should not be messed with by directors. It lives and breathes Hofmannsthal’s idealized 18th-century Vienna, and nothing is gained (and much is lost) by updating it for greater “relevance”. All three DVDs mentioned above have exceptionally beautiful period sets and costumes. Enjoy them!

Easy to watch and beautifully sung!

This is an excellent performance of a much loved opera. Sound and video quality is excellent also. The package wrongly suggests that the sound is Stereo only but in fact multichannel is available also as a menu option. Strongly recommended

以前所有していたＶＨＳと比べて、当然音質と画質が大幅に向上。これは輸入盤なので日本語字幕は出ないが、外国語の勉強として活用するのもいいのではないかと思う。カルロス　クライバーの情熱的な演奏は圧巻。感動的。

Endlich ist er da, der "erste" Kleibersche Rosenkavalier aus München- und er muss sich hinter der späteren aufwändigeren Wiener Produktion keineswegs verstecken. Wer wie ich das Glück hatte, diese Produktion mehrmals in München zu sehen, wird sofort wieder an diese magischen Momente zurückerinnert, in denen man vom ersten Takt an spürte, dass man Zeuge etwas ganz "ungeheuerlichen" war. Kleibers Zugang zur Partitur ist in München noch etwas "radikaler" als in Wien. Von den Sängern demonstriert vor allem Brigitte Fassbaender als Octavian, dass sie in dieser Rolle eine Klasse für sich war und ist, eine singuläre Leistung. Gwyneth Jones gelingt es als Marschallin ihre große, in der Höhe überscharfe Stimme gut unter Kontrolle zu bringen und damit eines ihrer besten Rollenportraits hier zu präsenteren. Manfred Jungwirths Ochs kommt zwar an Kurt Moll nicht heran, bietet aber eine vollblütige, glaubhafte Leistung. Lucia Popp ist eine hinreissende Sophie, wie schade, dass es keine Aufnahme ihrer Marschallin mit Kleiber am Pult gibt. Alle anderen Rollen sind ebenfalls mehr als rollendeckend besetzt, und Francisco Araizas "Kiekser" bei der Sängerarie vermittelt zudem ein echtes Live-Gefühl. Auch wer den Wiener "Rosenkavalier" unter Kleiber schon besitzt, braucht diese DVD, die zudem in Klang und Bild wesentlich brillanter daherkommt als die alte VHS-Kassette, auf der die Aufnahme bisher nur greifbar war.

Allen vorausgegangenen Rezensionen kann ich mich nur anschließen: Brigitte Fassbaender als d e r Octavian schlechthin, Lucia Popp mit iherm warmen, lyrischen Sopran, Gwyneth Jones mit ihren manchmal etwas metallischen Höhen, Jungwirth mit seinem Wiener Schmäh, der unbeholfene Faninal Benno Kusches usw. ... sängerisch wie darstellerisch bis ins Kleinste einmalig. Ganz zu schweigen vom Orchester unter Maestro Kleiber.Eins aber vermisse ich in allen Rezensionen: Das Lob für die völlig stimmige, detailreich gekonnte und so sehr überzeugende Regie von Otto Schenk. Seine Personenführung ist einfach einmalig, gleich, ob Einzel- oder Massenszenen. ( Wie auch in seiner Fledermaus - Inszenierung, ebenfalls mit Kleiber und dem Bayerischen Staatsorchester.) Kongenial auch die Bühen- und Kostümbildnerei von Jürgen Rose. Denn letztlich machen einen vollendeten Operngenuss doch alle Kompopnenten zusammen aus. Das ist hier in der Münchener Inszenierung aufs Vortrefflichste gelungen.