The Knight of the Rose by Strauss, De (2025/2025), Dirigit per André Heller-Lopes, Director musical Axel Kober, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, Germany

Trouble with relatives does not spare the Viennese nobility either: the uncouth Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau interrupts the morning tête-à-tête of his cousin, the Field Marshal, with her young lover Octavian to ask her for help with his wedding plans, which are more driven by pecuniary interests. Little does he suspect that Octavian, who is destined to be the Knight of the Rose, will end up falling in love with the bride himself... After the archaic-dramatic one-act plays "Salome" and "Elektra", Richard Strauss was looking for a lighter, more cheerful subject in the style of Mozart's operatic comedies for his next opera - an idea that Hugo von Hofmannsthal was also happy to accept. With his libretto, he created an artificial Rococo Vienna with customs and dialects that were as convincing as they were invented, which Strauss musically enhanced with anachronistic waltzes. This fantasy Vienna, full of joie de vivre, farces and traditional class boundaries, but also full of depression and morbidity, reflects not only the 18th century, but also the Belle Époque, which was drawing to a close. Strauss' score thus once again offers the entire wealth of orchestral timbres, sheer unrestrained indulgence that culminates in the final trio, which is unsurpassed in terms of musical beauty, but also shows deep fractures. Only a few years before the collapse of the Danube Monarchy, “Der Rosenkavalier” became the swan song of an entire era.