Product: Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier [VHS] (1994)
Rating: 5.0
A triumph for all concerned!
Although just appearing in a DG dvd, this is the taping of a 7-year old performance(a composite of several ones? the booklet just says "taped in Vienna, 3/94") that must have sent home the fortunate ones present with a smile broad as their faces. And what a performance it is! I wonder if there's a conductor better equiped to tackle this complex score than Carlos Kleiber, who must have the score embedded in his genes (his father Erich, one of the foremost conductors of the first half of the 20th century, was also an outstanding exponent of the piece, his version preserved by Decca). There's an earlier taping of the original Otto Schenk production from which this one derives that has been severally available in vhs and laserdisc and which I haven't seen, but I could catch an actual performance in Munich many years ago and if my memory doesn't betray me, this one is superior if only by notches (the actual singers may have been different in that 1974 evening from the ones featured in the video, though, so please bear with me). Lott (Dame Gwyneth Jones in the Munich performance, with a few vocal problems but with an equally grand presence) is an ideal Marschallin, never losing her poise without appearing icy or aloof (as Schwarzkopf sometimes might), her exit in Act III an example of true aristocratic flair and grace under the inevitable. Von Otter is too beatiful a woman to play a truly credible boy of 17 and her stage manners are way too feminine, but her singing is so ravishing one quickly forgets about it. Brigitte Fassbaender took care of this role in the Munich performance and I recall her portrayal as truly superior, her looks and ways more "masculine" and thus more up to the role (but I'll keep Von Otter's voice for pure pleasure!). The Ochs I saw in the Munich rendition under Kleiber I mentioned was Karl Ridderbusch, an outstanding Ochs if there ever was one, equally matched in this new video by the similar-voiced Kurt Moll, who perhaps might have shown more restraint in his stage ways (after all, Ochs is also of the aristocracy, not a rogue). And the Sophie of your dreams is undoubtedly Barbara Bonney, here resplendent in voice and looks. The camera takes are thoughtful and made with good taste, never obtrusive or "imaginative" as in other videos. Mind you, look no further: even if this were an audio-only release, it will be worth avery penny invested on it. And with the Vienna Philharmonic (well, with their "Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper" hats) in top-notch form under a most inspired conductor, this will surely stand the test of time as well as those other classic non-video accounts of the score, the 1956 Karajan (the Czinner film notwithstanding) and the even earlier from the hands of Kleiber père. DG have opted to edit out end-of-act curtain calls, bows and cheers, save for Act 1, a decision I don't understand for I'm sure the house must have come down with cheering and applause after such a delightful evening.