Saturday, April 22, 10:00AM
A sterling cast assembles for Strauss’s grand Viennese comedy. Soprano Lise Davidsen is the aging Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as her lover Octavian and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. Bass Günther Groissböck returns as the churlish Baron Ochs, and Brian Mulligan is Sophie’s wealthy father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the Met podium to oversee Robert Carsen’s fin-de-siècle staging.
Content Advisory: This production contains scenes that include nudity
World premiere: Court Opera, Dresden, 1911. Set in an idealized Vienna of the past, Strauss’s most popular opera concerns a wise woman of the world who is involved with a much younger lover but ultimately forced to accept the laws of time, giving him up to a pretty young heiress. Hofmannsthal’s fascinating libretto deftly combines comedy, dreamy nostalgic fantasy, genuine human drama, and light but striking touches of philosophy and social commentary. Strauss’s magnificent score, likewise, works on several levels, combining the refinement of Mozart with the epic grandeur of Wagner.
Approximate run time 4:30 with 2 intermissions
Adult $25 ♦ Student $15
Sponsored locally by Victor & Janet Ashear, Christine Gempp Love Foundation, Roger & Janet Haight, Seymour Thickman Family Foundation, Susan Scott Heyneman Foundation, Wayland & Marion Cato, and Wyoming Public Media
