Does this music madness never end?
Well seems not, as this weekend has really been good to my brain development. And it all started early Saturday morning with “Live from the Met”. This week it was Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. This is a long work, but the action goes quite quickly until the final scene (which takes forever) so I was surprised when I finally left the theatre that it was later than I expected. But that is really a small point as the production was fabulous.

Some many years ago, while watching Elvis Costello on Bravo I experienced an interview he had with Renee Fleming. I was really impressed with her wit, knowledge and somewhat (for me anyway) uncharacteristic figure for an opera singer. People like Maureen Forrester and other great operatic voices (as well as Ben Heppener, Pavrotti, etc.) had always reinforced in my mind that to be a good opera singer, a person needed to be big. Renee Fleming is not petite, but she is far from resembling a Peterbilt semi hauling a b-train of cement. Moreover she is able to talk about opera so that ordinary folk like me can understand.

This is all to say that even though my plane landed at midnight on Friday evening, I made sure I arose in plenty of time to get to the theatre to take in this performance — because Renee was singing a lead role of Marschallin — an older woman in love with a younger man. It turns out that it was a good thing I did, because this was the last time that she will sing this role — a role that she has almost made her signature. And she plays it well — so well that when she tells the young man Octavian (also played for the last time by Elina Garanca) that there will come a time when he will want someone younger and he will leave, I really felt badly for both Octavian and for Renee. I really wanted the story to be about how this special love would last forever.

Alas that would have not made for a great opera, although it could have been a wonderful musical!! Nevertheless it was a compelling performance and easily held one’s attention to the end. I am not going to give a step by step review of the story. There will be encore performances at various theatres throughout the country on June 17th, 19th and 21st. It is definitely worth seeing. But I will share some of the highlights for me…

There is, in the midst of the sadness around misdirected and incomplete love, some very funny scenes. Baron Ochs (Gunter Groissbock) is hilarious at times — he is crude, he is egotistical, he is no great lover — he is superb in this role. He is supposed to be marrying Sophie, whose father is a newly-rich arms dealer but without long blood lines. The father sees this marriage as a way to move the family up in the social world. However Sophie upon meeting the Baron is frankly disgusted with that opportunity and tries to find a way out of the pre-arranged wedlock. To be honest, the interplay around this entire possibility is very well staged even if one suspects something is afoot. It also sets up the prophecy of the Marschallin, for Octavian and Sophie fall in love. Thus Octavian has a vested interest in helping break off this engagement — some politically correct might even argue he is in a conflict-of-interest!!

How this all comes about forms some of the funniest scenes in the opera. Set in a brothel the various actions are both humourous and beguiling. I wish I had seen this opera in high school — it would have given me some useful ideas on how to break up certain high school romances that were obviously ill-planned and of no long term benefit to either party with the result being perhaps to my benefit. Alas I did not see opera in those days and my singing voice was such that I’m sure no one thought that I would even be interested. Moreover, reflecting on my dating prowess (or actually the lack thereof) at that time, I’m sure I would have bungled the attempt and ended up being carried off stage to an ignominious conclusion.

The opera ends with Sophie and Octavian gaining a future together with the blessing of the Marschallin. I would have offered to keep the Marschallin company myself but as I noted above, Renee is retiring from this role. Let me just say this opera was well cast and very well directed. The conductor, Sebastian Weigle, certainly knows Strauss and got the maximum effort from the orchestra. This definitely helps move the story forward with a sense of pace and purpose. In addition, I am immensely grateful to Jacqueline Desmarais who makes possible this transmission to Canada with a generous donation in memory of her late husband. For all some people criticize the rich, they obviously don’t appreciate the incredible moments these opera presentations are. And Der Roseenkavalier (the silver rose — symbolic of love and life-long commitment, I came to understand) is a performance that Ms. Desmarais should be very proud to have supported.