Product Description
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Newly restored and digitally remastered from the original 35 mm
film, the legendary soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf stars in this
accled film of Richard Strauss' delightful opera, Der
Rosenkavalier. This Salzburg Festival production of Strauss'
great work toured the world, and this filmed version was hailed
by the New York Times as "Superb." Schwarzkopf performs her
signature role as Princess von Werdenberg, an aging beauty
involved with a younger man, Octavian. But when Octavian agrees
to assist Baron Ochs by delivering the Baron's proposal of
marriage to the beautiful young Sophie, the messenger and
bride-to-be fall in love with each other! Now totally restored,
this historic film of Der Rosenkavalier is a shining example of a
performance style-and a musical art form-that is truly immortal.
Review
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This wonderful film has had a spotty release history, and has
been in and out of print over the years, establishing itself as
one of the must have cult items for a certain segment of the
opera loving public. With this new Blu-ray transfer, hopefully it
can stay in print long enough for fans to gobble it up, for it
most certainly is a feast worthy of a Waltz King Richard Strauss.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is a near-perfect heroine in this
poignantly comic look at aging and starcrossed lovers. Though
this is not a flashy production, it's of such inestimable
historical value, and presents this opera in such a glorious
performance, that it's easy to overlook some of the technical
issues of this Blu-ray. Highly recommended. - Jeff Kauffman,
Blu-ray.com --Blu-ray.com
On Blu-ray, Paul Czinner's 1960 film of Der Rosenkavalier in a
production from the Salzburg Festival displays not only the
intricacy of the laces and the texture of the silks but the
shabby plaster of the chamber separee in Act III. The swirls of
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf s golden hair echo the rococo decor of her
bedroom. Annina's blue dress and Valzacchi's plum suit suggest
their flashy, unreliable characters. Our star trio dresses with
far subtler taste, but who wouldn't love to attend a fete in the
baron's gaudy embroidered waistcoat?
The musical values may be taken for granted just from listing
the names of the legendary cast, and they sing and act with such
assured grace, dancing from casual conversation to full-voiced
splendor, that one may not notice the skill that has gone into
the show. As the Marschallin, Schwarzkopf hardly sings a line or
offers a smile without meaning at least two things by it, one
sophisticated and public, the other reflective, self-knowing.
When her voice descends into plummy, almost alto tones, it is as
if her soul were speaking to us, in an aside from her social
self. Sena Jurinac is not the world's prettiest Octavian, but
that suits the occasional clumsiness of a teenage lothario. As
Sophie, Anneliese Rothenberger appears to be fifteen, bewildered
by the world, and she sings the high lines flawlessly.
Otto Edelmann does not overdo Ochs' vulgarity and is more
credible thereby. His singing is genial and only misses the
lowest notes. (What Ochs but Kurt Moll ever got them?) Erich Kunz
is a nervous, fussy Faninal, as suites this nouveau-riche
character; he makes a nice contrast to Renato Ercolani s knowing
Valzacchi, a refugee from opera buffa with no pretensions to be
anything else. Giuseppe Zampieri makes a superb, not too
egregious Italian Singer.
The huge supporting cast seems to know exactly what to do and
whom to be and how not to go too far, from the venal Annina to
the stuffy Notary lessons that many a grander, more vulgar
Rosenkavalier might study with profit.
ert von Karajan is in the full flush of enthusiasm for this
score, and every gusty explosion of outrage, every lush, yearning
gaze, is synchronized with the stage action. The pairing of the
film with the Vienna Philharmonic is like a Viennese pastry
accompanied by the ideally bracing glass of Sekt. --Opera News