Rosenkavalier - Baden Baden - Thielemann, Fleming, Damrau, Koch, Hawlata, Kaufman

Once I’ve heard that there was this stellar Rosenkavalier playing at Baden-Baden, it has’t took me long to get a ticket and organize a weekend trip to Schwarzwald. The Munich Philharmonics was conducted by Christian Thielemann, with cast including Rene Fleming, Diana Damrau, Sophie Koch, Franz Hawlata, and Jonas Kaufman. It was a revival of the Salzburg Festival Wernicke’s production form 1997. Who ever follows the contemporary classical scene, knows that it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Overall, this definitely has been one very exceptional evening. Whatever the critics might say, it was one of the best Rosenkavalier you can get. The biggest disappointment of the night was without any doubt Hawlata, who completely lost his voice in the third Act. In the first two he was struggling with high notes, but was very strong dramatically, so he made up for it. He was definitely not helped by Sophie Koch, which was superb in the first two Acts (I was even starting to think how I liked her much better than Garanca, which I’ve heard recently in Vienna), but disappointed in the first part of the third act, when she played “Mariandl”. Her voice was very insecure in those “sprechgesang” passages with Ochs. When she “became” Octavian again, things went back to normal and she was absolutely splendid. (It was, though announced before the third Act, by the administration though, that Ms. Koch was ill and might have some vocal problems).

Damrau was absolutely great. Her second act duet with Koch, was one the highlights of the evening. I’ve never heard this duet sung so beautifully, it was also helped with slow tempi from Thielemann. It sounded absolutely stunning.. My fist impression from Fleming was that she sounds and acts exactly as one imagines she would, and that there is really no difference whether she sings Capriccio, Tatiana or Marschallin. Well, the first Act final scene proved me wrong. She was fantastic, beautifully singing and acting superbly. I’ve really liked her a lot.

Jonas Kaufmann stopped the show. At first I was a bit set back with his dark colored voice, which sounded somehow inappropriate for the role (one always imagines Pavarotti in this role). But his voice was so powerful and immaculate, that the whole scene was absolutely breathtaking.. I might not like everything that Thieleamnn did with the score, especially the smoothing of some dramatic key points in the music, like the “twist” ending of the second act, or the quarrel between Ochs and Notari, but overall this was one of the most interesting readings of the Rosenkavalier ever. The second Act overture for me was a complete discovery, never imagined that it could sound so interestingly beautiful. I really loved his slow tempi, which really brought some new beauty to the score. (the show lasted close to 5 hours!!!).

Overall I liked the second Act the most, which I thought was probably the best one I’ve ever heard live or on recording.

What Wernicke did with the stage was really ingenious. It was such a great idea to bring back this staging and record it, since it would really be pity lose such a masterpiece. I’ve loved very much his “mirror concept”. The whole stage is basically an empty space surrounded by huge mirrors, which reflect the spaces where the action is taking place. It worked the best, in the beginning of the third act, when through the use of the mirrors one could really get lost in following the action of the stage, where is the bed, who is coming , who is leaving etc. I really, really loved it.