Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier featuring Renée Fleming: Here's To You, Mrs. Marschallin - a podcast by WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera

It’s not easy to accept the changes that come with time and age. For Strauss’s Marschallin, the trick is simply learning to let go. When the curtain comes up onDer Rosenkavalier, she is having an affair with the young Count Octavian, but she quickly comes to realize that she will one day lose him to a woman his own age. Throughout Act I, she reflects on her lost youth, her desire to stop all the clocks, and on the fleeting nature of beauty and love.  

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests ruminate on the passage of time as the Marschallin learns to let go of her younger lover, and her younger self. At the end of the show, soprano Renée Fleming sings, “Da geht er hin” from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests

SopranoRenée Flemingmade the Marschallin one of her signature roles. Over the years, she explored many facets of this complex character, from her youthful impetuousness to her world-weariness. In her final performance of the Marschallin at the Metin 2017, Fleming expected to feel sadness, but instead, she was overcome with joy and gratitude. 

WriterPaul Thomasonis currently writing a book on the music of Richard Strauss. He is in love with the music inDer Rosenkavalier, calling it “deep soul music.” 

Wendy Donigeris a writer and retired professor from the University of Chicago who shared a special love of opera with her mother. In fact, opera was more or less their form of religion, andDer Rosenkavalierwas a particular favorite.

Dara Poznaris a life coach with her own story to tell about a relationship with a younger man, as well as her process of coming to terms with their age difference. In writing about this experience, she received an outpouring of camaraderie and support from other women who were also asking themselves the same questions about how their age would affect their relationships. 

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