The opera DER ROSENKAVALIER leads into the bedroom of a princess and straight into the intimate conversation with her youthful lover. Inspired by the ancient tragedy ELEKTRA, Richard Strauss and the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal envisioned something entirely new: a comedy for music. Cheerful, light, and elegant, conciliatory yet profound in its emotions and thoughts – and, of course, Austrian in its burlesque wit while at the same time touched by melancholy reflection. Thus the authors created the famous figure of the Field Marshal's wife, Princess Werdenberg who bears the first name Marie-Thérèse for good reason and entrusted her with the leading role in the opera DER ROSENKAVALIER, premiered in 1911.

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Der Rosenkavalier

Cologne Opera

Franz Welser-Möst lifts The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus and an all-star cast of soloists to the life-affirming heights of Beethoven’s only opera, a testament to courage and human nobility. Motivated by a desire for justice during a time of European turmoil, Fidelio decries corruption and sounds a clarion call for freedom in a riveting story that asks the question: How far would you go to save someone you love?

Beethoven’s Fidelio

Severance Music Center

The Marschallin spends a night with her young lover Octavian. In the morning, Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau disturbs the idyll and asks her to find a suitable bearer of the silver rose for his bride Sophie, the daughter of the rich Faninal.

Der Rosen­kavalier

Vienna State Opera

Funny, elegant, erotic, melancholic: women in society are viewed in the panorama of a fake world. A society lady in a midlife crisis leaves her marriage with a young lover, but soon wisely leaves him with a younger woman. A bon vivant who thinks he can exchange his noble name for fresh meat and money is thrown out. A boy of rank and name changes from one great love to another and a young daughter from a nouveau riche family still believes in the one and only. All beautiful appearances, full of waltz music, kitsch and sugar coating - with a dash of biting irony and yet full of truth.

Opernplatz

A fantastic opera in a prologue, three acts and an epilogue, Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann was performed on 10 February 1881 at the Opéra- Comique in Paris. The author had been dead for a few months and had not been able to complete the score on which he had worked on and off over the years. After a long tug-of-war between Opéra-Comique director Léon Carvalho and librettist Jules Barbier, the task of completing the work was entrusted to Ernest Guiraud, a friend of the late composer. Offenbach had composed a copious amount of music for the Contes without, however, managing to find a definitive version. The variability of content is reflected in the layout of the work, which is full of time jumps, interruptions and digressions in pure Hoffmann style. E.T.A. Hoffmann, an apex figure of German Romanticism, is the protagonist of the story set in various European cities in the early 19th century. While the Prologue and Epilogue take place in Nuremberg in Master Luther's tavern, where Hoffmann begins to recount his love affairs, the intermediate acts take place in Paris, Munich and Venice respectively, and feature female figures at the centre: Olympia, Antonia and Juliet, the women loved by the writer. A complex and layered work, steeped in bizarre situations, diabolical spells and visions, Les contes d'Hoffmann restores to the listener a variety of musical atmospheres full of enchantment.

Martin Summer

Events

Upcoming events

May 9, 2026 - Feb 19, 2027

Der Rosenkavalier · Wiener Staatsoper

Sep 27 - Dec 20, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Oper Köln

Dec 20, 2026 - Jan 2, 2027

Les contes d'Hoffmann · Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Past events

Sep 27 - Dec 20, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Oper Köln

16 - 24 May, 2026

Beethoven’s Fidelio · The Cleveland Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau in Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Wiener Staatsoper

Baron Ochs of Lerchenau in Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Oper Köln

Crespel/Luther in Les contes d'Hoffmann by Offenbach

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Singer in Fidelio by Beethoven

The Cleveland Orchestra

About

Martin Summer hasn't added a bio

Martin Summer

Events

Upcoming events

May 9, 2026 - Feb 19, 2027

Der Rosen­kavalier · Wiener Staatsoper

Sep 27 - Dec 20, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Oper Köln

Dec 20, 2026 - Jan 2, 2027

Les contes d'Hoffmann · Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Past events

Sep 27 - Dec 20, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Oper Köln

16 - 24 May, 2026

Beethoven’s Fidelio · The Cleveland Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau in Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Wiener Staatsoper

Baron Ochs of Lerchenau in Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Oper Köln

Crespel/Luther in Les contes d'Hoffmann by Offenbach

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Singer in Fidelio by Beethoven

The Cleveland Orchestra

About

Martin Summer hasn't added a bio

Der Rosenkavalier · Wiener Staatsoper