Music: Irresistible Score

The crowds which gathered in Philadelphia last week voted it the finest musical achievement of the U. S. season. The proud Philadelphia Orchestra played in the pit. On the stage was Lotte Lehmann, regarded by many as the greatest singer of the day. The opera, Der Rosenkavalier, was by Richard Strauss who has given the world more eloquent music than any composer now living.

When novices hear their first Rosenkavalier they are impressed by the lilting waltz themes, the glittering pageantry of oldtime Vienna. But Strauss’s comedy, an authentic product of genius, offers more than buffoonery. The role of the Marschallin, sung by Lotte Lehmann, is as subtle a character as any in opera. Here is a woman both beautiful and middleaged. She must be dignified and she must also love a young man ecstatically — while around her whirls the laughter of low comedy.

As the curtain goes up on her regal bed chamber, horns sound exuberantly and woodwinds whisper racy innuendoes. The fun begins. A youth, Octavian, has spent the night with the Marschallin. Trapped there in the early morning, he hastily dons petticoats, pretends to be a maid. Enter a fat old Baron who promptly sets to ogling and tweaking her (him). From then on the amorous Baron is never sure whether his path is being crossed by a lovely maid or a courtly rival. True love, young, starlit and sudden, comes to the stage when Octavian, clad in shining satin and bearing a silver rose, is sent to ask a rich young heiress to marry the Baron. Most operas end tragically but when Octavian and Sophie have finished their duet it is clear love will triumph.

Strauss wrote Octavian’s part for a mezzo-soprano. Last week’s impersonator was Eva Hadrabova, a rangy 27-year-old Czech whose figure is better than her voice. The Sophie was Elisabeth Schumann, longtime friend of Strauss, whose clear thread-like voice perfectly suited the demure fluttery young girl she was supposed to be. Basso Emanuel List made the Baron’s comedy as broad as his beam, as obvious as the tuba which kept tabs on him.

In Europe the role of the Marschallin is considered to be Lehmann’s greatest. Last week was the first time she has sung it in the U. S. Critics could find no flaw. Few will forget her as she sat before her mirror, sadly realizing that youth, for her, was gone.

From the pit the Philadelphia players gave the score all its eloquence. Conductor Fritz Reiner is a masterful Strauss conductor. His clean direct beat kept the framework exact but he brought out all Strauss’s slyness, curved the melodies so that their beauty was bewitching. Said Critic Lawrence Oilman in the New York Herald Tribune: “There has not been heard in this country such an exfoliation of the beauty and the riant comedy of Strauss’s irresistible score.”