

Overview
When Strauss and Hofmannsthal wrote «Der Rosenkavalier» – setting it in an imaginary Rococo Vienna and yet closely linked to the decadent fin de siècle – they created a profound social comedy. It is not without melancholy that the Marschallin lets her young lover Octavian go when he falls head over heels with Sophie, who hails from Faninal’s bourgeois household. As voluptuous as Strauss' score is, it contains tender moments of dream and melancholy. Director Lydia Steier stages Strauss’ opera according to an aesthetic concept by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein. Diana Damrau sings the Marschallin. Joana Mallwitz, chief conductor at the Konzerthaus Berlin, conducts the Orchester der Oper Zürich.
Cast
Die Feldmarschallin Fürstin Werdenberg
Der Baron Ochs von Lerchenau
Herr von Faninal
Octavian
Sophie
Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin
Annina
Valzacchi
Eine Modistin
Der Hausmeister der Feldmarschallin/Ein Wirt
Ein Polizeikommissar
Ein italienischer Sänger