| Der Rosenkavalier |
| This website contains information that anyone can find with Google. |
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| Dramatic mezzo soprano (pants) role. The young Count Rofrano is a young nobleman, at first he courts the Marschallin, later he falls in love with Sophie. |
| Year |
| Artist |
| 1940 |
| Risė Stevens |
| 1941 |
| 1945 |
| 1946 |
| 1951 |
| 1952 |
| 1955 |
| 1957 |
| 1960 |
| 1962 |
| 1964 |
| 1967 |
| 1971 |
| 1985 |
| 1993 sum |
| 2000-2001 |
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| Frances Bible |
| Kerstin Meyer |
| Irmgard Seefried |
| Sylvia Anderson |
| Risė Stevens |
| Risė Stevens |
| Frances Bible |
| Frances Bible |
| San Francisco Opera Octavian History |
| 1978 |
| * Bloomfield-50 Years of SFO/ 1922-1978 The San Francisco Opera. |
| 1940-45 * Rise Stevens, still in her 20s, was a delightfully playful Octavian. Click left for You Tube talk |
| 1967 * The new Octavian was Sylvia Anderson, A Denver girl based at the Frankfurt Opera. Excellent bearing, a keen acting talent, and a warm, fine spun, if not epical high mezzo all added up to a viable sum. |
| 1971 * Much attention centered on Christa Ludwig and she was awarded a standing ovation after the third act. There was immense class in everything she did, and when this Octavian dressed up as Mariandel, she was very funny but in a deft, non-slapstick way. For once the Mariandel dialect wasnt too screechy or squealy. |
| Octavian |
| Act I: Wie du warst! Wie du bist! |
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| Aria Data Base for Octavian |
| 2006-2007 |
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| DiDonato's performance consistently found its niche within Strauss' endlessly shifting vocal textures -- now firmly supporting the higher vocal lines of the two sopranos, now soaring free with thrilling athleticism./ SF Review 2007 |
| DiDonato, .. is also a skilled, agile comedian, and she gave a hilarious performance in the Act III charade where Octavian poses as the fictitious maid Mariandel (that's right, a woman playing a man pretending to be a woman.) Her initial meeting with Sophie -- one of the most riveting love-at-first-sight scenes in all of opera -- projected the youth's surprise and delight in equal measure. And in the glorious trio that is the high point of the opera, DiDonato soared/ Review 2007 |
| DiDonato's scene with Soile Isokoski's Marschallin in the first act; DiDonato's presentation of the rose, and her love duet with Miah Persson (Sophie); then the concluding Trio had impeccable balance/ EX Review 2007 |
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| Brigitte Fassbaender in 1985 production |