Several fellow bloggers got to see Dorothea Röschmann and
Magdalena Kožená in Der Rosenkavalier in Berlin this
week. I stayed home and watched a DVD of Lohengrin
(Bayreuth 2010). Rats! Not that I didn't enjoy Lohengrin, but I
have to admit I am jealous of my Berlin-visiting colleagues.
Fortunately they've shared their thoughts in their
blogs.
The Earworm got to sit in
the front row—not always the best seat in the house, but a wonderful
opportunity to see one's idol up close. This review (unsurprisingly)
rhapsodizes about Frau Röschmann:
The phrasing, especially during last section of the act that begins with “da geht er hin”, had all the subtlety that you would expect, and I also discovered that the lowest register of her voice has a really lovely velvety quality that apparently does not get fully communicated on recordings! I liked it before; I like it even better now. And of course she’s acting her heart out…
Standing in front of the stage, she acts with her face and body an intense drama of a woman who knows she lost her lover and perhaps the last chance to be happy and is slowly, very slowly and painfully, coming to terms with the result of the intrigue.
Apparently Kožená was good, and there were some other singers, a conductor, and an orchestra, too.
But that’s enough from me. Click on over and check out the full
posts at their blogs: Earworm and Dorothea Röschmann – an appreciation. Rumor has it that Earworm would be back in the opera house again Friday night, so check back at her blog for more updates. For more background on the production itself, with a slightly different cast, check
out Boulezian's review of
the 2009 performances.
Update 12/22/2012: The Earworm did indeed see Der Rosenkavalier again last night.
Update 12/22/2012: The Earworm did indeed see Der Rosenkavalier again last night.
I guess I was rhapsodizing a bit, wasn't I :) But it was hard not to! I wish I knew the score to this opera better than I do, so I could pick out more of the detail in the orchestral playing.
ReplyDeleteKozena was indeed good. When I first started listening seriously to opera (about ten years ago) she was one of the singers who got me into it - I remember just loving the quality and dramatic expressiveness of her voice. I haven't heard her live in nearly a decade (the last time was as Dorabella in NY in like 2004 or so) and her voice the other night sounded darker than I remembered, in a good way.
I expected nothing less! A well-written Röschmann Rhapsody is a righteous thing. The original post had another sentence, which I deleted, since I couldn't figure out how to write it with a wink without using an emoticon.
DeleteIt went something like, "Perhaps on Friday, the Earworm will actually listen to the other singers and the orchestra." Glad to hear how good Kožená was. Enjoy the Röschmann replay tomorrow night!