Smugly noticing the £115 ampitheatre ticket price for the forthcoming ROHCG production, I settled into my £12.75 seat and greatly enjoyed this wonderful performance yesterday afternoon in the Leeds Grand Theatre. A re-run of David McVicar's production from 2002, there is no sense of a company rehashing a tired old favourite - this came out as fresh as a newly-opened bottle of champagne; the visual spectacle perfectly complementing the Music. (Indeed, I did wonder if the placing of the side-titles led to people missing some of the visual antics of the performance - Victoria Sharp's superb acting as Marianne didn't receive the chuckles and titters I thought it merited.)
Ylva Kihlburg was a good Marschallin, her voice a little "forced" in louder passages, and not quite as moving in her Act One monologue as I'd been hoping. But she acted the role perfectly, and her contribution to the final Trio couldn't be faulted. Helen Sherman was a very good Octavian - full of impetuous swagger and teenage sulks in Act One, and genuinely shame-faced with the Marschallin in Act Three - I've often been less than impressed with Octavian's behaviour listening to recordings and broadcasts, but this time I felt a real sense of regret from the character. Sherman's voice was strong and lyrical - presenting the Trio and the Duets with Sophie with heart-melting beauty - occasionally a little strained when contending with the full orchestra. The Baron Ochs of Henry Waddington was equally good - acting and singing spot-on, the sustained low notes a smidgen fragile, but with everything else so positive to experience, this actually added to the enjoyment of his performance.
And a superb Sophie from Fflur Wyn; quite simply impeccable singing and acting. That bit where she smells the perfume on the silver rose (where Strauss, the clever so-and-so, eases in the Double basses under the voice's soaring melody so that the aural landscape goes into tummy-warming cyclorama) - oh, crikey! It was gorgeous. Similar moments of sheer joy in the Act Three Trio and Duet - a real four-hankie experience - but also wonderful singing and acting in the "pattering" dialogue - Sophie's chattering nervousness in front of the Marschallin comically precise, but also the strength of character that isn't always so clear in some performances.
Splendid contributions from the other roles, too (and it's an opera where practically everyone in the chorus gets a "go") - Faninal, the Commissioner of Police, the Major Domos, Annina (a bit sour of tone) and Valacchi, the Landlord, the Animal Seller, and a quite gloriously petulant Tenor - all contributing their very best to the tremendous success of the production, as did ON's terrific chorus.
As, of course, did that quite magnificent orchestra - a chamber ensemble of seventy players, just as Strauss demands; an army of generals, as flawless as we have any right to expect from mere mortals outside the recording studio editing suite. It was, I think, Aleksander Markovic (ON's new Music Director)'s first Rosenkavalier, but no worries in that department: he guided the performers through this incredibly elaborate score as if he's been doing it for years (closer to Erich Kleiber than, say, to Karajan - letting the comedy "tell" whilst still allowing the soupy bits to to warm the cockles of the listeners' vitals). A couple of moments when perhaps the singers (particularly Kihlberg) might have benefited from the orchestra being a notch or so quieter - but these were fleeting. A couple of moments of unwritten rits in the name of "interpretation" in the Waltzy bits, but this was a niggle rather than a vice - and I loved the breath-taking pause (just longer than expected, but without sentimental "milking") perfectly timed before the last Trio.
A wonderful evening's entertainment - highly recommended to anyone who can reach the venues at which the production is appearing.
Ylva Kihlburg was a good Marschallin, her voice a little "forced" in louder passages, and not quite as moving in her Act One monologue as I'd been hoping. But she acted the role perfectly, and her contribution to the final Trio couldn't be faulted. Helen Sherman was a very good Octavian - full of impetuous swagger and teenage sulks in Act One, and genuinely shame-faced with the Marschallin in Act Three - I've often been less than impressed with Octavian's behaviour listening to recordings and broadcasts, but this time I felt a real sense of regret from the character. Sherman's voice was strong and lyrical - presenting the Trio and the Duets with Sophie with heart-melting beauty - occasionally a little strained when contending with the full orchestra. The Baron Ochs of Henry Waddington was equally good - acting and singing spot-on, the sustained low notes a smidgen fragile, but with everything else so positive to experience, this actually added to the enjoyment of his performance.
And a superb Sophie from Fflur Wyn; quite simply impeccable singing and acting. That bit where she smells the perfume on the silver rose (where Strauss, the clever so-and-so, eases in the Double basses under the voice's soaring melody so that the aural landscape goes into tummy-warming cyclorama) - oh, crikey! It was gorgeous. Similar moments of sheer joy in the Act Three Trio and Duet - a real four-hankie experience - but also wonderful singing and acting in the "pattering" dialogue - Sophie's chattering nervousness in front of the Marschallin comically precise, but also the strength of character that isn't always so clear in some performances.
Splendid contributions from the other roles, too (and it's an opera where practically everyone in the chorus gets a "go") - Faninal, the Commissioner of Police, the Major Domos, Annina (a bit sour of tone) and Valacchi, the Landlord, the Animal Seller, and a quite gloriously petulant Tenor - all contributing their very best to the tremendous success of the production, as did ON's terrific chorus.
As, of course, did that quite magnificent orchestra - a chamber ensemble of seventy players, just as Strauss demands; an army of generals, as flawless as we have any right to expect from mere mortals outside the recording studio editing suite. It was, I think, Aleksander Markovic (ON's new Music Director)'s first Rosenkavalier, but no worries in that department: he guided the performers through this incredibly elaborate score as if he's been doing it for years (closer to Erich Kleiber than, say, to Karajan - letting the comedy "tell" whilst still allowing the soupy bits to to warm the cockles of the listeners' vitals). A couple of moments when perhaps the singers (particularly Kihlberg) might have benefited from the orchestra being a notch or so quieter - but these were fleeting. A couple of moments of unwritten rits in the name of "interpretation" in the Waltzy bits, but this was a niggle rather than a vice - and I loved the breath-taking pause (just longer than expected, but without sentimental "milking") perfectly timed before the last Trio.
A wonderful evening's entertainment - highly recommended to anyone who can reach the venues at which the production is appearing.
)
- I didn't know this. (The CD of this Karajan is, FWiW, my preferred recording of the work - even with those ruddy cuts 
- with the Erich Kleiber - no cuts :hurrah: but very restricted sound in comparison 
- an excellent alternative.)
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