Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Lotte Lehmann wrote in Five Operas and Richard Strauss: "[T]he curtain rises upon a scene of peaceful intimacy: Marie Theres', the Marschallin, is reclining upon a couch in serene repose. Octavian, her lover, kneels by her side, his head in her lap while her hands gently stroke his hair. … Strauss thought of her as being approximately thirty-five. … In that day and age … no striking significance attaches to the fact of her having a lover. … Married off to her Field Marshal at a rather tender age, she had to wait for illicit affairs of the heart in order to discover the joys utterly lacking in her marriage. Now … she takes pleasure in the boyish seventeen-year-old Count Octavian. … He, of course, thinks of himself as desperately in love with her. … 'No one,' he declares, 'will cross this doorstep without my permission. I am the lord and master of this place.' Lord and master, indeed — so much so that he has to go hide as breakfast is being brought in. The Marschallin is intensely aware of the comic aspects of the situation, and her 'There he goes, quick as lightning, hiding from the breakfast,' is sung on a note of tender mockery. …" (pp. 123 ff.)