Time is a strange thing, it doesn’t change things.
Probably no one expected after such dramatic and – for his period – controversial works as Elektra and Salome that Richard Strauss would produce a comic opera interlaced with the rhythms of Viennese waltz. The libretto by Strauss court collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who was freely inspired by the works of the gentlemen Louvet de Couvrai and Molière, features an amusing plot about an elderly Baron named Ochs who wants to marry a young, rich girl; his plans are foiled by the fact that his chosen Sophie falls in love with a certain Octavian after he gives her a ceremonial silver rose in the Baron´s name. Its classification as a comic opera may be misleading, however: the intertwining of the layers of Viennese society in the middle of the 18th century is a source of many humorous situations but the work also features aspects which are less funny and more concerned with the human condition. These mainly arise in connection with the character of the ageing marshal – the desire to be young and the fear of growing old, infidelity, and selflessness in love.
Performed in the original German with Czech and English surtitles. The performance lasts about 3 hours 50 minutes, including two intervals.
