Free from the Met, "Der Rosenkavalier"

The free opera tonight from the Metropolitan Opera is "Der Rosenkavalier." I watched half of the first act while I was cooking dinner. I took a break and left dinner simmering on the stove so I can share my initial observations.

One, Renee Fleming, just lovely. She is a lovely person in real life, from where I sit ... or sat, which is the chair of the music critic at The Buffalo News. I interviewed her on the phone a couple of times and I really enjoyed the conversations. I love Richard Strauss and we had a wonderful talk once about the Four Last Songs, which she was singing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. That was a dream come true for me! I have loved the Four Last Songs since I was a teenager. And to be discussing them with a world-class soprano ... unbelievable.

My life has been blessed, you know?

Anyway, Renee Fleming is one of the glories of the production ... so beautiful, and such beautiful singing. She is believable as the Countess. Did I say the Countess? I meant the Marschallin. I think of her as the Countess because Strauss was inspired by the Countess in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," another opera I love. I think of them as the same person because they are.

Elina Garanca who was our bad-ass Carmen a few weeks ago is Octavian. You figure she will take it over the edge and she does. What a good-looking gal and she makes a good-looking guy. This was their last performance in these roles. Both were retiring, at least from these particular parts.

They are very good together.

I have special praise for the singer who sings Baron Ochs. Gunther Groissboek.

Peter Gelb, introducing the opera, refers to his terrific panache, and that is true. Panache. It is cool to have an Ochs who is cute and has panache. It makes it more fun.

Here are my thoughts on the opera as performed by Renee Fleming, Susan Graham, and a great Scandinavian Baron Ochs, Kristinn Sigmundsson. That Ochs also had panache.

Reading back on that post just now, I am glad I wrote it! There are things I had forgotten. Such as how Ochs says of Octavian, "I see myself in him." And the possibility that Octavian is Ochs' son. Their names are similar, you know? Both start with the same syllable. That is something to think about.

I do not think I mentioned this before but watching that other production, I noticed something else. There is this one moment that struck me. I had missed it previously, or something. That is in the last act, when Ochs puts it together about the Marschallin and Octavian. It dawns on him. You see it in his face, if he is a good Ochs. He says something about, What am I to think about this?

And she says Nothing, if you are a gentleman.

And he says, Never let it be said that a Lerchanau was a spoilsport. That is his name, Ochs von Lerchenau. And you remember at that point that he is her cousin, they are related.

They are cut from the same cloth, after all! That scene is a game-changer, and to think that I missed it before. I am looking forward to seeing it.

Along with the rest of the opera. "Rosenkavalier"!

There is nothing like it!