Music in Der RosenKavalier
I must admit that I bit off a bit more than I could chew on this particular event by choosing to focus on music. I have very little professional experience in the world of music, and no experience whatsoever in the world of opera. As such, I am unable to fully appreciate the nuances of each performance and use complex terms like “scoopy” to describe how each vocalist sounded.
That said, however, My key observation was the ease with which I could identify characters based on differences in their voices. I had entered the opera skeptical that I would be able to distinguish one soprano from the other, a particularly difficult job in an opera with so many female vocalists, but I quickly became familiar with the differences in overall texture and sound between each performer and was able to easily use voice to determine the singing actor, instead of having to guess based on stage direction. Of course, being able to know who is speaking doesn’t add a great deal to any performance, but being so familiar with each singers’ voice on such an intimate level really led to a stronger connection with the characters leading to a greater investment in the events that unfolded over the three or so hours that I was there.
