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Tales from the Stave

Documentaries

Music: Classical

Series that tracks down the stories behind the scores of well-known pieces of music

Tales From the Stave: Series 11

Tales from the Stave: Series 11: Episode 2: Der Rosenkavalier

Episode 2

Episode 2: Der Rosenkavalier

Series 11

Der Rosenkavalier

BBC Radio 4 - Tales from the Stave, Series 11, Der Rosenkavalier

Conductor Simone Young joins Frances to explore the score of Richard Strauss's comic opera

Frances Fyfield is joined by pioneering Australian conductor Simone Young to explore the exquisite and luxurious score of Richard Strauss's comic opera Der Rosenkavalier.

When Der Rosenkavalier made its British premier in 1913 there was heated debate about the appearance of the on-stage bed in the first scene, not to mention the hot-blooded music that accompanied the antics thereupon! However the manuscript of Richard Strauss' most popular opera is more about extraordinary precision and detail than passionate abandon.
The huge volumes held by the Austrian National Library were actually a part payment for a Viennese house Strauss was in the process of acquiring but their appeal to one of the world's leading Strauss conductors, Simone Young is the discipline and imagination of the score's contents. Also joining Frances Fyfield to see this huge work is the Viennese Baritone Clemens Unterreiner who, as the elderly Faninal finds himself performing the part of a character who comes from the same area of the city has he does.
The opera is perhaps most famous for its three central female characters, the Marschallin, her lover Octavian, usually sung by a Mezzo-soprano, and Sophie who eventually tears Octavian away from his initial relationship. Simone's Young's insights into this triangle and how Strauss evokes it in the score in some of the most visceral romantic music of the 20th century is a highlight of this quintessentially Viennese edition of Tales from the Stave.

Producer: Tom Alban.

Tales from the Stave: Series 11

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Frances Fyfield tracks down the stories behind the scores of well-known pieces of music

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Episode 2: Der Rosenkavalier

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