Der Rosenkavalier

The overture is described by some as more than just the preliminaries to the opera, but the soundtrack to what’s happening with the curtain closed which leads to a panting and exhausted Quinquin and Bichette in the first scene. "Orgasmic" is the word to describe those things, and the performance does reach quite a few paroxysms.

Kristinn Sigmundson, who was the Commendatore in Don Giovanni a week ago, comes back as the boorish Ochs auf Lerchenau, basically a lecherous ox, a delightfully ribald aristrocrat who thinks he can get away with the worst manners and can’t contain an insatiable lust. Not only did Don Giovanni not repent, he obviously took the Commendatore with him to hell, for Kristinn to deserve such a reincarnation. The costume people did not do him any favors again, as he goes from a "28-days" zombie in Don Giovanni to wearing the most ridiculous red-haired wig.

Surprisingly enough, while the character could seem one-dimensional, Kristinn’s performance was nuanced: from gross to comedy to a sometime reflective moment on his own youth, and all with a big, thick, rotund voice to match.

Reflecting on the past, on the what-could-have been, is a pervasive theme of the opera: Bichette, the Marschallin, dreams of stopping the clocks to keep time from moving forward. She also wishes her own youth had been driven by love, instead of being thrown into a marriage of convenience. She’ll grant that gift to Sophia, in a way to both get time springing forward by letting her lover go, and reaching back to her own youth’s dreams. Soile Isokoski embodies the conflicts of the character with a graceful and tender voice. She has a soft, rounded tone, with an underlying strength, like a stone worn out by the waves. Maestro Runnicles recommended us to purchase her Strauss CD of the Four Last Songs, and that’s some of the best advice we've received. Get it too! She was just magnificent. Miah Persson completes the cast lead: as an iridescent Sophie, she makes plausible the sudden conversion of Octavian. The love duet between Sophie and Octavian in Act II is worth the price of admission alone.

While we noticed a few imperfections in the cues for the singers, who were slightly off beat here and there, the orchestra, led again by Donald Runnicles, romped through the almost four hours of performance with consistent energy and a rich, luscious sound. Actually, a slightly less assertive orchestra would help us better grasp the singer’s performance. While we're nitpicking: somebody needs to run a tighter ship backstage, we could see the shadow of a stage manager with a clipboard in Act I. Not as bad as the stage hand who was crawling on stage during Don Giovanni, but we hope it's not a pattern.

Oh, and Heidi Meldon and Noah Stewart, whom we highlighted in the Grand Finale concert of the Merola program, have since then joined the rank of the Adler fellow (a prestigious apprentice program for aspiring singers at the SF Opera) and made their debuts on the main stage. Theirs were small roles, but it is fun to follow the evolution of their careers. They both made positive impressions.

The set is a recreation of the original 1911 decor for the initial performance, which makes it timeless and you can pretend you’re seating at the premiere, and is a subtle homage to the “stopping the clock” (or the impossibility thereof) that is discussed by the characters on the stage.

Der Rosenkavalier.
The run is short: only 7 performances total!
Fri. June 15, 7:30 pm, Tue. June 19, 7:30 pm, Thu. June 21, 7:30 pm, Sun. June 24, 1:30 pm, Wed. June 27, 7:30 pm, Sun. July 1, 1:30 pm.
Box Office: 864-3330