On the whole, the Rosenkavalier Prom made for very good listening on iPlayer. I got the sense that Tara Erraught pretty much walked off with the show, perhaps indicated by the fact that she rather than Kate Royal got the final cast curtain call at the very end (or perhaps the whole media kerfluffle earlier had something to do with it, i.e. the cast wanted her to get the last bow). Very fine indeed vocal portrayal of Octavian, perhaps mildly OTT when she cross-cross-dressed as Mariandel, with the exaggerated accent. I did see Prommer's point (#26) where Kate Royal might have sounded a bit small in voice as the Marschallin. However, I thought that she acted her singing quite well, such as in the tiny moment where she lets slip the tiniest hint that she's had other lovers besides her current one, but also the longer sections where she muses on the passage of time (Act I) and tells Ochs to clear off (Act III).
Speaking of accents, I noted that Franz Hawlata's accent wavered, between traditional 'hoch Deutsch' (standard for opera) with attempts to include what I take to be a 'Austrian bumpkin' accent, with some rounded o’s here and there, except that he wasn’t always consistent at sustaining the latter (like the accent that Kurt Rydl used in Haitink’s recording). Louise Alder sounded fine as Sophie, and played up the acting to the hilt more than usual in objecting to being married off to this uncouth cad Ochs. Fine supporting cast and chorus as well.
On iPlayer, the recording engineers can obviously play with balance to make sure the singers come through and don't get completely swamped by the orchestra, which I'm gathering from some comments here (e.g. #14, #18) happened in the hall, with Ticciati leading the proceedings. That aside, however, I have to say that I thought Ticciati paced the opera well, and the LPO was on excellent form. Plus, the advantage of a concert or semi-staged performance away from the opera house, at least in this instance, is that you finally got to hear the orchestral close to Acts I and III, without premature applause from a descending curtain that causes audiences, Pavlov-style, to applaud early in the opera house.
For Honored Guest’s question (#15) about cuts, there were indeed cuts to the complete score in this Prom performance. However, while I'm not 100% certain, I rather suspect that they were the 'standard' cuts that I think are present in recordings like Karajan (1956), Bernstein, and Erich Kleiber. Haitink's and Solti's recordings (I have a copy of the former) present the complete uncut text and music. So I do not believe that this was to accommodate the new singers, but simply reflects the "old school" performing version that Glyndebourne used in its production both in the house and at the RAH. It was admittedly disconcerting to follow the text in the uncut version, only to have to jump suddenly when some lines turned up missing. It took a moment to realize that stage cuts were in effect at this Prom, not the full text.
Per Lento's comment (#17), Michael Kennedy in his note to the Haitink recording has this counter-thought, which you can refute or not mentally:
In a dramaturgical rather than harmonic sense, I can see MK's point, in that I really got the sense, from hearing this particular performance (with the full libretto in front of me, admittedly), of how much of a "play with music" Der Rosenkavalier is. In parallel, it also dawned on me how good the orchestral writing is in that kind of conversational context, such that one just gets carried along, even if on paper, the story does seem to have its longeurs, as others have noted.
Per Flosshilde's comment (#11), I was reminded of the very next comment from MK in that note:
BTW, FWIW, I've managed to glean 75% of the 2015 Glyndebourne season from trawling various websites. Given that Glyndebourne gives 6 productions each summer, for the mathematically inclined, 75% may not make sense, until you read the list so far:
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia (with KR & LA in the cast)
Donizetti: Poliuto
Handel: Saul (William Christie conducting)
Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (new production by David McVicar; Ticciati conducting)
Ravel: L'enfant et les sortilèges (revival, half of a double bill, other half is not certain)
Hence the 75%, 4.5 shows out of 6. It wasn’t 100% clear if the full Ravel double-bill in the Laurent Pelly production was set for 2015 revival, as my on-line sources only confirmed L'enfant. In the context of The Proms, it'll be interesting to try to guess which production will be at the RAH next year. (Knowing Murphy’s Law, it may well be the one that I haven’t tracked down yet.)
Speaking of accents, I noted that Franz Hawlata's accent wavered, between traditional 'hoch Deutsch' (standard for opera) with attempts to include what I take to be a 'Austrian bumpkin' accent, with some rounded o’s here and there, except that he wasn’t always consistent at sustaining the latter (like the accent that Kurt Rydl used in Haitink’s recording). Louise Alder sounded fine as Sophie, and played up the acting to the hilt more than usual in objecting to being married off to this uncouth cad Ochs. Fine supporting cast and chorus as well.
On iPlayer, the recording engineers can obviously play with balance to make sure the singers come through and don't get completely swamped by the orchestra, which I'm gathering from some comments here (e.g. #14, #18) happened in the hall, with Ticciati leading the proceedings. That aside, however, I have to say that I thought Ticciati paced the opera well, and the LPO was on excellent form. Plus, the advantage of a concert or semi-staged performance away from the opera house, at least in this instance, is that you finally got to hear the orchestral close to Acts I and III, without premature applause from a descending curtain that causes audiences, Pavlov-style, to applaud early in the opera house.
For Honored Guest’s question (#15) about cuts, there were indeed cuts to the complete score in this Prom performance. However, while I'm not 100% certain, I rather suspect that they were the 'standard' cuts that I think are present in recordings like Karajan (1956), Bernstein, and Erich Kleiber. Haitink's and Solti's recordings (I have a copy of the former) present the complete uncut text and music. So I do not believe that this was to accommodate the new singers, but simply reflects the "old school" performing version that Glyndebourne used in its production both in the house and at the RAH. It was admittedly disconcerting to follow the text in the uncut version, only to have to jump suddenly when some lines turned up missing. It took a moment to realize that stage cuts were in effect at this Prom, not the full text.
Per Lento's comment (#17), Michael Kennedy in his note to the Haitink recording has this counter-thought, which you can refute or not mentally:
"It is, of course, a misjudgment to allow the waltzes to mislead us into regarding Der Rosenkavalier as a step backwards in Strauss’s progress as a composer, a retreat from the 'advanced' style of Elektra. In the development of a flowing melodic conversational recitative, Der Rosenkavalier is a major step forward."
Per Flosshilde's comment (#11), I was reminded of the very next comment from MK in that note:
"Harmonically it is frequently as dissonant as Elektra, which in any case contains passages as diatonic and succulent as any in Der Rosenkavalier. All the best performances of Der Rosenkavalier are those in which a certain bitter astringency complements the sweetness."
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia (with KR & LA in the cast)
Donizetti: Poliuto
Handel: Saul (William Christie conducting)
Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (new production by David McVicar; Ticciati conducting)
Ravel: L'enfant et les sortilèges (revival, half of a double bill, other half is not certain)
Hence the 75%, 4.5 shows out of 6. It wasn’t 100% clear if the full Ravel double-bill in the Laurent Pelly production was set for 2015 revival, as my on-line sources only confirmed L'enfant. In the context of The Proms, it'll be interesting to try to guess which production will be at the RAH next year. (Knowing Murphy’s Law, it may well be the one that I haven’t tracked down yet.)
Comment