Der Rosenkavalier
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Richard Strauss
Dramatic mezzo soprano (pants) role.

The young Count Rofrano is a young
nobleman, at first he courts the Marschallin, later he falls in love with Sophie.
Year
Artist
1940
Ris� Stevens
1941
1945
1946
1951
1952
1955
1957
1960
1962
1964
1967
1971
Christa Ludwig
1985
1993 sum
Frederica von Stade
2000-2001
Susan Graham
Jarmila Novotna
Blanche Thebom
Frances Bible
Kerstin Meyer
Irmgard Seefried
Sylvia Anderson
Ris� Stevens
Ris� Stevens
Blanche Thebom
Frances Bible
Frances Bible
Brigitte Fassbaender
San Francisco Opera Octavian History
1978
Hanna Schwarz
* Bloomfield-50 Years of SFO/ 1922-1978    The San Francisco Opera.
1940-45 * Rise Stevens, still in her 20�s, was a delightfully playful Octavian.
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1967 * The new Octavian was Sylvia Anderson, A Denver girl based at the Frankfurt Opera. Excellent bearing, a keen acting talent, and a warm, fine spun, if not epical high mezzo � all added up to a viable sum.
1971 * Much attention centered on Christa Ludwig and she was awarded a standing ovation after the third act. There was immense class in everything she did, and when this Octavian dressed up as Mariandel, she was very funny but in a deft, non-slapstick way. For once the Mariandel dialect wasn�t too screechy or squealy.
Octavian
Act I: Wie du warst! Wie du bist!
Aria Data Base for Octavian
2006-2007
Joyce DiDonato
DiDonato's performance consistently found its niche within Strauss' endlessly shifting vocal textures -- now firmly supporting the higher vocal lines of the two sopranos, now soaring free with thrilling athleticism./ SF Review 2007
DiDonato, .. is also a skilled, agile comedian, and she gave a hilarious performance in the Act III charade where Octavian poses as the fictitious maid Mariandel (that's right, a woman playing a man pretending to be a woman.) Her initial meeting with Sophie -- one of the most riveting love-at-first-sight scenes in all of opera -- projected the youth's surprise and delight in equal measure. And in the glorious trio that is the high point of the opera, DiDonato soared/ Review 2007
DiDonato's scene with Soile Isokoski's Marschallin in the first act; DiDonato's presentation of the rose, and her love duet with Miah Persson (Sophie); then the concluding Trio had impeccable balance/ EX Review 2007
Brigitte Fassbaender in 1985
production
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