Richard…The Other Strauss
Never made it into a Bugs Bunny Cartoon
Richard Strauss was no relation to The Waltz King, Johann Strauss, Jr., but Richard also liked waltzes.
I never heard Richard Strauss’ music as a soundtrack for a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Maybe because his music was too Germanic.
You have probably heard at least one of Richard’s compositions, but likely didn’t know it.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (“Also sprach Zarathustra”) may be the most recognizable of Richard Strauss’ work. That’s because the initial fanfare — titled “Sunrise"— was used by Stanley Kubrick for the open scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The operas Strauss wrote are, so far as I know, not generally part of the current popular repertoire, though some of his incidental music is still performed in a concert setting.
There are a few exceptions. One of the best known is titled “Dance of the Seven Veils” from his opera Salomé. The dance, itself, and the scene in which it plays out became infamous at the time of its premier.
If you’ve forgotten the story, King Herod asks Salomé to dance on the occasion of his birthday. She agrees with the condition that he present her the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Turned out to be a bit of a shock for the audience.
Once upon a time, The Metropolitan Opera used to broadcast (that’s an old radio term) its Saturday matinees. And that’s how on a couple of occasions I came to hear Strauss’ comic opera Der Rosenkavalier (“The Knight of the Rose”). It has since been presented by WETA (PBS) as part of its Great Performances at Met programming. (This was in 2023.) I’ve only heard this opera sung in German, and none of the arias are really familiar. What are familiar are the overture and some of the incidental waltz music.
Here’s the thing I find interesting. The story revolves around three primary characters: two women and a 17-year old boy. But all three roles are performed by sopranos.
Der Rosenkavalier is described as a comic opera, but it also has a bitter-sweet aspect.
The titular character is a seventeen-year old boy named Count Octavian Rofrano (sung by a mezzo-soprano). But the central character is really Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg (the Marschallin — that is, a field-marshal’s wife), also sung by a soprano. (For years, this was Renée Fleming’s signature role.) The third soprano in this triumvirate is 15-year old Sophie von Faninal; she is the daughter of a rich bourgeois.
Finally, this wouldn’t be a comedy of manners, farce and intrigue without a foil. That is the character of Baron Ochs, the Marschallin’s country cousin (obviously a bass); he is somewhat of an oaf. To round out this story, Sophie is Ochs’ prospective fiancée. (Her father has the money; Ochs has the title. A match made in heaven.) Obviously, Sophie is not pleased with this arrangement, but it’s a paternal (male) dominated world in which she lives.
This being a comedy, the first act opens with the Marschallin and Octavian having spent a night together. Voices are heard offstage. The Marschallin believes it’s her husband returning from a trip. Octavian hides in her closet, then reemerges wearing a skirt and bonnet and pretending to be ‘Mariandel,’ one of the Marschallin’s personal maids. But it’s not the Field Marshall. It’s Baron Ochs rushing in on what he considers to be a very urgent matter.
Ochs may have a title, but he is essentially broke; so he asks the Marschallin to lend him her lawyer to write a marriage contract and to provide a nobleman to serve as his Rosenkavalier to deliver the traditional silver betrothal rose to Sophie. The Marschallin of course recommends Octavian for the role of the cavalier.
Before he leaves, Ochs spies ‘Mariandel’ and makes a pass at her. This is the inspiration for what turns out to be the Marschallin’s plan to upset Ochs’ applecart.
Being a woman of wit and determination, and recognizing that the young Octavian will eventually leave her and fall in love with a much younger woman, the Marschallin devises a plot to breakup Ochs’ arrangement with Sophie’s father and introduce Octavian to Sophie. And the game is afoot.
By the end of third act, Ochs is sent packing, and Octavian and Sophie are on their way to a happy-ever-after ending. This act concludes with the three sopranos singing a trio. I think this is the only time this occurs in any opera. (When I first encountered this scene, it brought to mind the act that the three tenors — Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras — had about 25 years ago.)
Though the storyline is funny, Der Rosenkavalier is not an opera that leaves me humming the arias, unlike the operas written by the Italian composers. I’ve also never encountered it sung in English, as are some of the light (comic) operas composed by The Waltz King and Franz Lehár. And other than the overture and incidental waltzes, the music from this opera is not usually performed in a concert setting.
So there you have it.
“Also sprach Zarathustra” — the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Gustavo Dudamel — Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie (2012)
(This starts really slow, then all hell breaks loose; the timpanist has a great time.)
“Dance of the Seven Veils” from Richard Strauss' opera Salomé — the Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly — London's Royal Albert Hall (1997).
Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier — New York Philharmonic (1998)