Last night and this afternoon I watched a 1985 Royal Opera production of Der Rosenkavalier with Kiri Te Kanawa as the Marcshaline and Anne Howells (I think) as Octavian.I am not sure how much I like either Strauss or German opera. I enjoyed this story, but I didn't find the music as delightful and enthralling as, say, Mozart for example. There were a few beautiful arias, particularly in the last act. But in general I found the music rather unmelodious and the sound of the German language was jarring at times. Also, there was no major tenor singing beautiful and poignant arias like in most of the operas I've seen. The male lead was either a bass or baritone (I can't really tell the difference) and I didn't particularly like his performance.
I am seeing this live HD at BAM on January 9th, and it will be interesting to compare productions and performances. I have to say, though, Strauss is a little on the difficult side.
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