The Rose's Influence In Modern Opera Films

1125 Words3 Pages

Modern opera productions have developed at earliest since the 1920s. Despite this development, Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss had been staged in the similar rococo style. This style followed the scenery and costume of the first performance by Alfred Roller (1911). His original design had dominated various productions of this opera until the end of the twentieth century. After this, new modern productions of this opera are increasing more and more, but its original staging still does not lose its influence. Even today, many directors think about how to give up the concept of the original staging. There is an enormous number of researches about this opera, but few of literature about modern productions. … This paper analyzes three …show more content…

The silver rose is a symbol for the marriage of Ochs and Sophie as an aristocratic custom made by Hofmannsthal. Ochs brings the silver rose to Marschallin in the first act. After that, Octavian gives it to Sophie in the ceremony of the silver rose in the second act. Additionally, in some traditional productions, Marschallin takes the silver rose from the case during her monolog in the first act. Some scholars have argued about its origin, but the most popular one is the William Mann's argument. There was the ceremony of the golden rose as a symbol of virtue. In this ceremony, the pope sends it with balsam and musk to women on the Sunday of their marriages. In the literature, there are two important topos of the rose: on one hand, it means the mortal and heavenly love (Nobert Abels 1992) in the tradition. On the other hand, it means the flourish and transiency of the life in the context of the culture around 1900. The third motive is the mirror. In the first act, Marschalin looks herself in her hand mirror during the morning dressing. Through this, she notices her old age and her melancholic monolog scene begins. After she says goodbye to her young lover Octavian, she looks disappointedly her face in the mirror again at the very end of this act. This gesture unwritten in the original direction book has already been standard since the 1930s. The hand mirror is the trigger for her knowledge for the old age and causes her

Open Document