Der Rosenkavalier /Glyndebourne

Daffers recenty reviewed her Orient Express trip in terms of an experience and I would apply the same description to Glyndebourne. It’s expensive, it’s well run, to have a picnic by the lake on a summer’s day is wondrous, but I don’t know if it’s for the real Opera buff. Added to this the productions often take risks in terms of dress and location which do not always come off.

Der Rosenkavalier is light opera and meant to be funny. I did not hear the audience laugh that much nor often. Set in Vienna at the height of its power under the Habsburg empire and composed  by Richard Strausss in 1911 I wonder if its nostalgia has any accuracy or relevance.

Vienna in 1911 had the ideas of Sigismund Freud, the paintings of Gustav Klimt, the writings of Stefan Zweig, the music of Carl Schnritzler – so was it even necessary to compose an Opera based around a more fossilised ancien society?

Baron Von Ochs (Brindley Sherratt) is seeking to marry the daughter of a wealthy merchant Herr Von Faninal.

The Baron’s cousin the Marschallin (Rachel Willis-Sorensen) has a younger lover Octavian (Kate Lindsey) who falls in love with Sophie (Elizabeth Sutphen) and the intrigues of both this amour and the Baron’s pursuit form the plot lines of the opera.

The production debuted in Glyndebourne in May 2014 to some outrage when a critic found fault in the looks of the Marschallin. Octavian is played by soprano Kate Lindsey and it does some time to get your head round her and Sophie being the same sex.

Although I found the unravelling of the plots pedestrian, the evening was saved by the performance of the London Philharmonic conducted by Robin Ticciati.

It’s much harder to conduct opera than a symphony but the orchestra achieved a stellar performance of the rich cadences and engulfing music of Strauss.

Oh yes – and the picnic by the lake of cold lobster and chilled burgundy was delightful too on a warm and long Saturday evening in pastoral and peaceful Sussex.