Tonight:
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Nick Kimberley's rating
, Playing it for easy laughs
By
Nick Kimberley
23 May 2008
Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier premiered in 1911, on the cusp of the First World War. It is set shortly before that other great convulsion, the French Revolution.
David McVicar's 18th-century designs for his own production (here making its London debut) duly give a sense of an old order fraying at the edges, even if it's not yet clear what will take its place.
McVicar has noted Strauss's description of the opera as a "comedy for music". The trouble is that he plays it for easy laughs, so that low-grade farcerie obscures the occasional traces of emotional and political insight. Conductor Edward Gardner delivers a reading that is equally short on finesse.
Alfie Boe, given the joke cameo role of an Italian singer, shows some grace. Too much of the rest is mere bustle and bluster and without sumptuous singing, the opera feels coarse and slight.
Only in the great Act III trio, and the ensuing duet, do Sarah Connolly (Octavian), Janice Watson (Marschallin) and Sarah Tynan (Sophie) finally cut through all the business to reveal a genuine depth of feeling. It was a long time coming.
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