Creating Der Rosenkavalier

Out of stock at the UK distributor

You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched

Other available formats

Overture
Beginners On the page... ...and onto the stage
Act One:The Young Libertine
Act Two: Who was Harry Kessler?
Act Three in two scenes and an Epilogue: Creating Der Rosenkavalier
Scene One - devising the scenario
Scene Two - characterisation and authorship
Epilogue
Creating Der Rosenkavalier - a retrospective
Bibliography

About
Reviews
Explore

About

A full account of the making, during 1909-10, of Der Rosenkavalier with emphasis on its derivation from a French operette of 1907, L'Ingenu libertin, which was seen in Paris by Count Harry Kessler and which formed the basis of the opera then to be written by Hofmannsthal and Strauss. Previous scholarship has credited the narrative and characters of Der Rosenkavalier to much older French sources known to and studied by Hofmannsthal, butthis book shows clearly how every element in L'Ingenu libertin is in fact taken (and transformed) by Kessler and Hofmannsthal into the work that made fortunes for Hofmannsthal and Strauss, but left Kessler on the sidelines. Michael Reynolds casts a major new light on Strauss's most popular operatic success, highlighting in particular how it was that Hofmannsthal - who had not until then had any theatrical success as an original playwright - wasadvised and empowered by Kessler to produce a work that succeeded onstage from its very first performance and went rapidly on to conquer the stages of the world.

Reviews

Music and Letters

The 'Preface' to Michael Reynolds's charming book begins with a pithy statement: 'This is a book about creation, authorship and relationships'. Thus, in a nutshell, he lays out succinctly the course his monograph takes from uncovering a largely overlooked backstory to the creation of one of the most successful operas of the twentieth century. He presents a detailed account of the nature and origins of its authorship via a considered and sensitively pitched examination of the artistic relationships that underpinned it

Book

Other available formats

Contents

Download queue