Michael Tanner

Equivocal masterpiece

Der Rosenkavalier <br /> Royal Opera House

issue 19 December 2009

Der Rosenkavalier
Royal Opera House

Der Rosenkavalier is the most self-conscious of comedies, as well as being largely concerned with self-consciousness. It has two kinds of joke: one, the broad practical jokes indulged in at enormous length at Baron Ochs’s expense; the other, the sophisticated humour of youthful illusions being dashed, while others rapidly spring up to replace them.

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