About the opera
- Run time: 4hrs 15min, 2 intermissions
- Sung in: German
- Subtitles: English, German and other languages
- Opera house: Vienna State Opera
Set in an idealized Vienna of the past, Der Rosenkavalier is about a wise woman of the world who is involved with a much younger lover but ultimately forced to accept the laws of time, giving him up to a pretty young heiress. The fascinating libretto deftly combines comedy, dreamy nostalgic fantasy, genuine human drama, and light but striking touches of philosophy and social commentary. Strauss’s magnificent score, likewise, works on several levels, combining the refinement of Mozart with the epic grandeur of Wagner.
Ticket information
- Select a date an book
- E-Ticket (Print@home)
Vienna State Opera
Opernring 2, 1010 Vienna View in Google Maps
How to get there:
Subway: U1, U2, U4 to Karlsplatz
Trams: 1, 2, D, 62, 71 to Opernring
Conductor Adam Fischer
Feldmarschallin Lise Davidsen
Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau Günther Groissböck
Octavian Emily D'Angelo
Herr von Faninal Adrian Eröd
Sophie Sabine Devieilhe
Born in Munich into a family of musicians, Richard Strauss (1864–1949) began his musical studies at the age of four, began composition studies aged 11 and in 1883 became a protégé of the conductor Hans von Bülow, who encouraged him to study the music of Wagner. Strauss’s early masterpieces include several orchestral tone poems and many songs. Around the end of the 19th century, Strauss turned his attention to opera.
The libretto for Rosenkavalier is by Viennese author and poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929), with whom Strauss collaborated over the course of 20 years in one of the most remarkable partnerships in the history of opera. Hofmannsthal was a sophisticated dramatist, part of the astonishing Viennese intellectual scene of the time, along with Sigmund Freud, Joseph Roth, and Stefan Zweig. Inspiration for the libretto came from novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière's comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac.
