Der Rosenkavalier

Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose) is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière?s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. It was first performed at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on 26 January 1911.

Characters

• Principal roles
• The Marschallin, Marie Thérèse, Princess Werdenberg (soprano)
• Octavian, Count Rofrano, her young lover (mezzo-soprano)
• Baron Ochs of Lerchenau, her cousin (bass)
• Sophie von Faninal (soprano)
• Minor roles
• Herr von Faninal, a rich merchant, Sophie's father (baritone)
• An Italian singer (tenor)
• The Marschallin's Major Domo (tenor)
• Four footmen to the Marschallin (2 tenors, 2 basses)
• A notary (bass)
• Valzacchi, a spy (tenor)
• Annina, his niece and accomplice (contralto)
• Marianne Leitmetzerin, Sophie's duenna (soprano)
• Faninal's Major Domo (tenor)
• An inn-keeper (tenor)
• Four waiters (1 tenor, 3 basses)
• A Police Commissioner (bass)
• Other
• Three noble orphans (soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto)
• A milliner (soprano)
• An animal vendor (tenor)
• Mohammed, the Marschallin's black page (mute)
• A scholar, a flautist, two hairdressers, a noble widow (mute)
• Servants, guests, hired deceivers, children, constables, musicians (chorus)