Strauss, R: Der Rosenkavalier

“[Fleming] speaks volumes with those expressive eyes and floats the trio's opening phrase to perfection...Sophie Koch produces rich, impassioned sounds and makes a convincing boy...Kaufmann [is] handsome and oddly impressive as the Italian tenor” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 **

“...we have Christian Thielemann's immaculately bittersweet conducting and Renée Fleming's Marschallin, sung and acted with superb conviction...Watch out, meanwhile, for Jonas Kaufmann's brief, but sensational appearance as the Italian Tenor.” The Guardian, 11th December 2009 ****

“Uwe Eric Laufenberg's production may be fuzzy, but this Dresden Rosenkavalier captured on tour in Japan has to be seen for Anne Schwanewilms's Marschallin, one of the most consummate operatic performances I've ever seen. Along with a beautiful, expressive face made for the cameras to adore come exquisitely phrased and coloured singing, total physical ease and an attention to the text which only a native German singer could achieve... There's world class singing, too, from Anke Vondung's Octavian - looking more like an elegant lesbian than a boy... and Maki Mori's girlish, twirling Sophie.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 ****

“Although it is 27 years old, this unforgettable performance has lost nothing of its power to delight eye and ear, and is in almost every way superior to Carlos Kleiber's 1994 remake in Vienna. Schenk's direction is finely judged, strong in detail, in Jürgen Rose's handsome, traditional sets.
Eschewing fashionable modernities, its has stood the test of time.
Kleiber's reading has that essential mix of warmth and élan the score demands, and a lightness of touch allied to controlled but never effusive sentiment. The Bavarian State Opera Orchestra plays with the brio and confidence gained from long experience of Kleiber's impulsive ways. The shots of the conductor in the pit during the preludes to Acts 1 and 3 show how incisive his beat can be and how much he actually enjoyed conducting the piece.
The instinctive interaction of the principal singers is another indication of the rapport achieved in this wonderful staging. The intimacy of the Act 2 dialogues between the Marschallin and Octavian and between Sophie and Octavian, and the interplay among the three in the closing scene of Act 3, is rewarding and deeply moving.
In the name part, Fassbaender acts the ardent, impetuous youth to the life, sensual with the Marschallin in Act 1, lovestruck with Sophie in Act 2 and wittily amusing in the Mariandl disguise, the eyes conveying all the character's changes of mood. Nothing is exaggerated, everything rings true in an ideal assumption.
Popp conveys all the shy charm called for in the Silver Rose scene, indignation at Ochs's boorish behaviour, and in Act 3 confusion as her emotions are torn apart; she sings with the right blend of purity and sensuousness. Dame Gwyneth, in one of her best roles, looks appealing and girlish in Act 1, and then becomes all dignified authority and resignation in Act 3. She is right inside the role, and suggests all the heartbreak at the end, adapting her large voice throughout to the work's conversational style. Jungwirth is a ripely experienced, echt Viennese Ochs, for the most part avoiding excessive boorishness. Kusche is a tetchy old Faninal, Araiza a mellifluous Italian Tenor.
The smaller parts are taken by long-serving members of the Munich company.
The picture comes up fresh on DVD and the sound is mostly first-rate, as is the video direction.
This is a must-buy.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Kleiber's conducting is spacious, transparent and warm. Brigitte Fassbaender is ideal as Octavian, Gwyneth Jones a moving Marschallin, Lucia Popp a sweet-voiced if mature Sophie, and Manfred Jungwirth a dignified but funny Ochs.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2005

“Kleiber gets some ravishing sounds from the Vienna Philharmonic, and his reading of the score is as Straussian and as perfect as you are likely to encounter in this world. The sound is very natural and lifelike” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“Adrianne Pieczonka's Marschallin gives a telling portryal of a modern woman thoroughly enjoying her liaison in middle age...Miah Persson is an adorable Sophie and Franz Hawlata, playing Baron Ochs as a not-so-old military man, is less the ineffectual figure of ridicule than usual...Semyon Bychkov unleashes a gutsy, Bavarian kind of Strauss” Gramophone Magazine, September 2010

“a thoughtful presentation, finely sung by a distinguished cast and wonderfully conducted by Bychkov.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 *****

“very fine indeed...the cast has no weak link. Adrianne Pieczonka looks excactly right as the Marschallin and sings and acts very movingly throughout...The very boyish Angelika Kirchschlager is perfectly cast as Octavian and, like the lovely Sophie (Miah Persson) sings very beautifully...Brian Large's video direction is near-perfect” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“[Fleming] speaks volumes with those expressive eyes and floats the trio's opening phrase to perfection...Sophie Koch produces rich, impassioned sounds and makes a convincing boy...Kaufmann [is] handsome and oddly impressive as the Italian tenor” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 **

“we have Christian Thielemann's immaculately bittersweet conducting and Renée Fleming's Marschallin, sung and acted with superb conviction...Watch out, meanwhile, for Jonas Kaufmann's brief, but sensational appearance as the Italian Tenor.” The Guardian, 11th December 2009 ****

“Uwe Eric Laufenberg's production may be fuzzy, but this Dresden Rosenkavalier captured on tour in Japan has to be seen for Anne Schwanewilms's Marschallin, one of the most consummate operatic performances I've ever seen. Along with a beautiful, expressive face made for the cameras to adore come exquisitely phrased and coloured singing, total physical ease and an attention to the text which only a native German singer could achieve... There's world class singing, too, from Anke Vondung's Octavian - looking more like an elegant lesbian than a boy... and Maki Mori's girlish, twirling Sophie.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 ****