Join us for June’s “A Note on Opera” lecture as we look at Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier [The Knight of the Rose].”
It’s rare in opera to have both a great composer and a great writer working together. There are three notable exceptions, though: Mozart and da Ponte, Verdi and Boïto, and Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Ultimately Strauss and von Hofmannsthal created 6 operas together; “Rosenkavalier” was their 2nd partnership.
Beyond the immediate appeal of its lush score, beautiful language, bittersweet situation, young love, and almost slapstick comedy, “Rosenkavalier” is one of the only operas with characters who not only come with a “back story,” but a “front story,” too. Strauss and von Hofmannsthal created such complex, multi-layered characters that we in the audience grow to know them so well that we might even imagine what happens to them after the curtain falls.
Lecture to be in English by David Kerr. No pre-existing knowledge of music required.
Please use the link to register in advance for this event.