Der Rosenkavalier

[Superhorn]

   The other and later DVD of Der Rosenkavalier  with Carlos Kleoiber ocnducting is also very fine . It'[s from the Vienna State opera and features Felicity Lott, Anne-Sophie von Otter, Barbara Bonney and Kurt Moll , on DG .

[StLukesguildOhio]

I subsequently bought the Schwarzkopf/Karajan recording, which is, to this day, my milestone recording. I don't find Schwarzkopf's detailed singing in the least bit mannered. So good is she at conveying fleeting changes of expression, that I feel I can see as well as hear her. Unlike many of the famous Marschallin's on disc, she is singing in her own language, and you feel she understands every facet of the character she is playing. Ludwig, an ardent Octavian, sings with great security and sweep, though she is more generalised in expression than Jurinac, the Octavian in the Paul Czinner film (also with Schwarzkopf and Karajan). I also prefer Rothenberger's creamy sound in the film to the rather white voice of Stich-Randall on the recording. Both performances for me are essential, the film beautifully restored in its recent Blu-ray incarnation.

Others will have their favourites. I know many cannot take to Schwarzkopf's art, but in Strauss, as in Mozart, I find her ideal, and I might well find myself clinging to this Schwarzkopf Rosenkavalier if ever shipwrecked on that famed desert island.

Are there any other recordings?



Seriously this recording seems to me the standard to the same extent as Kleiber's recording of Beethoven's 5th. Of course lovers of these works/composers will wish to explore other interpretations... but these remain virtually "canonical".

Indeed... I had to look. Where I have 3 or 4 recordings of most of Strauss' operas (I'm a Strauss fanatic) the only other version I have of Der Rosenkavalier is Kleiber's (excluding video/DVD):



The only other one that intrigues me is Karajan's with Lisa Della Casa:

[kishnevi]

Stlukesguild--do you have any preferences for video/DVD (beyond, I assume, the Czinner film)?
And do you have any opinions about Karajan's later recording/video

the DVD apparently being a compound of the Czinner sets with the cast of the CD version.
And just to tidy up, the current incarnation of the Karajan Schwarzkopf  CD is this
[asin]B002N4DZ3K[/asin]
and the film is available in non Blue Ray format here
[asin] B0043988GM[/asin]

[Tsaraslondon]

Stlukesguild--do you have any preferences for video/DVD (beyond, I assume, the Czinner film)?
And do you have any opinions about Karajan's later recording/video

the DVD apparently being a compound of the Czinner sets with the cast of the CD version.
And just to tidy up, the current incarnation of the Karajan Schwarzkopf  CD is this
[asin]B002N4DZ3K[/asin]
and the film is available in non Blue Ray format here
[asin] B0043988GM[/asin]

Beware the non Bluray version. it may say restored and remastered from the original, but it looks and sounds like a very bad video. The bluray version looks as fresh as it it were filmed yesterday.

[kishnevi]

Beware the non Bluray version. it may say restored and remastered from the original, but it looks and sounds like a very bad video. The bluray version looks as fresh as it it were filmed yesterday.

Thanks for the warning.   I almost ordered it last night.... (I don't have a blu-ray player).

[Tsaraslondon]

Thanks for the warning.   I almost ordered it last night.... (I don't have a blu-ray player).

I don't either, but there are clips from the Bluray on youtube. The film has been digitally remastered and both sound and picture are now exemplary. I have the DVD version and I was really disappointed with it. It really was like watching a bad video -not what I expected at all.

I love this film so much, I'm considering buying a Bluray player just so that I can watch it.

[knight66]

You have inspired me, the Blu ray Schwarzkopf version is on its way. I saw it at the cinema when I was a child and not since. Glad to know it comes up like new paint.

Mike

[mjwal]

You have inspired me, the Blu ray Schwarzkopf version is on its way. I saw it at the cinema when I was a child and not since. Glad to know it comes up like new paint.

Mike

I saw it in my teens and was ravished - and then again in Frankfurt in my 20s: the picture and sound were very bad by then. Our next DVD player will be a Blue Ray, for sure, but first i have to sell that Hogarth print  . - By the way, I love the excerpts I have on some Lisa della Casa box of the Karajan version with Jurinac etc, which I prefer to the EMI version (as I do the live Krauss, but that's another story, as it's in rough sound).

[zamyrabyrd]

Lisa della Casa in "Hab mir's gelobt":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgUJ-JJ4NIU
The tenderness and renunciation of the opening give way to layer upon layer of increasing but controlled intensity.
ZB

[knight66]

I see she died recently, over 90 years old. That is a lovely performance that was linked to.

The Bluray arrived of the Karajan Schwarzkopf version. Although billed as a live performance;it clearly is not. I enjoyed it a lot, though thought that Juraniac was more of a pantomime principal boy than a believeable young male. But there was lots to enjoy.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

I see she died recently, over 90 years old. That is a lovely performance that was linked to.

The Bluray arrived of the Karajan Schwarzkopf version. Although billed as a live performance;it clearly is not. I enjoyed it a lot, though thought that Juraniac was more of a pantomime principal boy than a believeable young male. But there was lots to enjoy.

Mike

I know what you mean about Jurinac.

It was filmed on stage, though, in conjunction with actual live performances. Schwarzkopf remembers they did it in very long takes.

[knight66]

Yes, it comes across as an excellent performance, but why they cling to the error that it was recorded live I don't know.

Mike