Der Rosenkavalier

Richard Strauss was too harsh when he called himself only a “first-rate second-rate” composer, but while this 2014 Salzburg Festival production of his lushly romantic 1911 comedy is hardly mediocre, it's not outstanding either. In Der Rosenkavalier, the wise Marschallin ensures that her young lover, Octavian, is united with the beautiful Sophie, despite the attempts of her boorish cousin Baron Ochs to woo the girl. The playing of the Vienna Philharmonic is predictably polished, but Franz Welser Möst's conducting is more efficient than affectionate; and while Günther Groissböck makes an imposingly smug Ochs and Krassimira Stoyanova an elegant Marschallin, the rest of the cast—particularly Sophie Koch as Octavian and Mojca Erdmann as Sophie—are less impressive. Harry Kupfer's tasteful but unimaginative staging situates the tale roughly at the time of the work's composition, while the sets—employing gigantic rear projections of Viennese landmarks, as well as some large mirrors, and only modest bits of furniture in the first two acts (things open up in the third)—are pleasing but tend to dwarf the characters. On the other hand, the costumes—mostly in whites, blacks, and shades of gray—are quite lovely. Essentially, the strengths and weaknesses are pretty evenly divided between this performance and an earlier Salzberg mounting staged by Robert Carsens (VL-3/07), which was more ardently conducted by Semyon Bychkov but made the mistake of situating Act III in a brothel rather than a simple hotel. Presented in DTS 5.0 (DTS-HD 5.0 on the Blu-ray release) and PCM stereo, this somewhat uneven but often enjoyable rendition of Strauss's greatest opera is recommended. (F. Swietek)