Conductor Andrew Litton should be well stoked for this weekend's conclusion to Sommerfest. On Saturday, Litton leads the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Chorale and soloists in a concert performance of "Der Rosenkavalier," the perfect conclusion to a festival that waltzes on a foundation of Viennese music.
"It's the most Viennese of all Viennese operas," said Litton, Sommerfest's artistic director. "I was so keen on doing the piece in Sommerfest because it's the perfect opportunity to play waltzes the way Richard Strauss wrote them."
As a coincidence of his calendar, Litton spent the past week in Vienna getting in the Strauss zone. He conducted the Tonkünstler Orchestra at the Grafenegg festival outside Vienna, in a program that included six Strauss songs. After the Saturday night concert, he was back on a plane for Minneapolis on Sunday.
"It's kind of crazy, but I love working with them so I couldn't say no," he said.
100 years old
This is the centenary of "Rosenkavalier's" premiere in Dresden, Germany. An overnight success, it would become one of Strauss' best known operas and a standard part of the repertory. The plot is of the shaggy-dog comedy variety: mistaken identities and boorish lechers, young lovers finally triumphing over the louts and claiming their future together.
The Metropolitan Opera staged an epic production in the fall of 2009, with Renee Fleming and Susan Graham. The Sommerfest program is largely a concert version, as opposed to the semi-staged productions of previous years. Litton will work out some entrances and exits with the principals, but there will be no sets.
"It's such a period piece and either you focus on the music, which is what I wanted to do, or you start making huge concessions on how to make it work with an orchestra sitting amongst you," Litton said. "To me, it's all about the music."
