Customer Reviews

Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Starting with the reason why this is a vital purchase for any Renee Fleming fan (or even any fan of a great singer / actor)--it may be the best thing she has ever done. She uses every dynamic, every color, every movement, every reaction to her fellow singers you can imagine to create a one-of-a-kind "living" woman, and a few ideas you probably won't expect. (The last minute of Act One is infinitely touching without a note sung...just to name one.) If you are a fan of hers, you will find nothing to complain about and so much to admire--the tricky mixture of sadness, irritation, pain, love, and even a touch of humor that makes up the final meeting of Octavian in Act One. She does not "milk" the monologue about the clocks, which makes it all the more touching. Her final appearance in the opera, including the heartbreak of the Trio, is a marvel to watch and hear. In its subtlety and range and originality, her Marschallin is unmatched. Really, this is a truly great operatic portrayal, to rank and even surpass the wonderful Schwarzhopf in the famous filmed version. (She certainly seems more "girlish"--Octavian would not fall in love with a "mature" woman. He sees no difference between them, age or otherwise. Important and usually ignored, especially by a few too many people who swear they know Rosenkavalier backward and forward. Why do so many of them think the Marschallin is a middle-aged woman?) The comic roles (certainly "buffo" and played broadly) mostly work very well and though Hawlata is far from the greatest "singer" of Ochs, he is lovably obnoxious and even rather pathetic when confronted with his own foolishness. He seems within the character word for word and it shows. His vocal shortcomings are not so grave as to keep you from enjoying him. And Jonas Kaufmann is quite funny as a tenor who brings in paparazzi as well as an agent! The conducting by Thielemann is free from the "squareness" that sometimes mars his conducting. He is flexible and free and follows the singers like a glove. When a firmer hand is needed, it is there. In fact, his control over line, shape, and dynamics to match Fleming is one of the best selling points of the recording. The production is beautiful to look at, the updating unobtrusive (how often is that the case?) and the directing makes all the elements work as a frame for characters not just singers, especially the use of mirrors as a meaningful and unifying device. A few comic pieces of business don't quite work but they are few and short and far between. Costumes, lighting, etc. are all of a piece. This should be a given at all times in every production, but so rarely is. No, it is not Zeffirelli realism, but all the better for it as far as I am concerned. (You know if you are not in agreement, so take that into consideration.) And the "problem" of the young black servant which is a little too redolent of its time period--and not ours--is cleverly "solved."

Now the disappointments. And they are grave (to me...some people might not be as bothered, but I have to say what I feel.) Neither Sophie Koch or Diana Damrau, though musical, and intelligent and characterful, sing beautifully in the highest registers--and their roles lie high much of the time. Beautiful passages will be marred over and over by strain and shrillness. Koch is more forgivable in Act One because she is supposed to be highly strung, but even then strain distracts. Sadly, the next two acts get worse and worse. Damrau is just as bad. She has some undeniably lovely moments but she has more strained ones, culminating with her entrance in the Trio that has to be the ugliest version I have ever heard. This is not world-class singing, no matter how many people claim it is. I wish it were different. She is musical and she can act. But the singing is too often unpleasant. She is straining, forcing the tone, no two ways about it. And Koch's part in the Trio is not much better. So the opera's highlight is only a highlight in Fleming's singing and acting. A major mark against it. Luckily, the orchestra supports the rise at the end of the Trio before the key change with such a full set of strings, the harshness of the two "outer" voices have their shrillness tempered some, so at least the payoff is still effective. Disappointing, though. VERY disappointing.

Hard to give a star rating but four stars for what is (truly) great that will hopefully help you overcome the vocal shortcomings.

NOTE: I watched it two more times. I liked Koch better than I did. The last two acts lie lower, so her singing (sans Trio) is less harsh than Act One. Still feel the same about Damrau, alas, though the final duets are lovely.

I liked this performance a great deal but it didn't live up to its potential. The singing was very good overall but the voices of Koch and Damerau just didn't seem to mesh very well. I've never been a big fan of Fleming but she is superb here, both singing and acting wise. The production was beautifully done but the floor to ceiling mirrors was often distracting, particularly in acts 1 and 3. If you were in the auditorium it wouldn't have been a problem, but on the small screen when the focus is on just a portion of the action, it was often confusing to see the reflection of so many people scurrying around right behind the main characters. The orchestra played well but somehow it just didn't seem to have the glistening shine that I've heard from others, particular the Vienna Philharmonic. The director added some interesting touches but made a major mistake with the presentation of the rose. Sophie and Octavian should be facing each other during most of the singing, not facing forward. He also allowed Koch and particularly Damerau to overact during act 2. All that being said, I would still high recommend purchasing this DVD. It is worth it for the performance of Fleming alone.

My favorite performance is from the Met with Kiri Te Kanawa, Tatiana Troyanos, Judith Blegen and Kurt Moll. It is nigh on perfect and had the luxury of Pavarotti as the Italian Singer. I can only hope it appears some day on DVD to replace the DVDs I made from VHS tape.

It is interesting to note that the last three Rosenkavaliers to have been released have all been updated to relatively contemporary setting with one major exception--the Robert Carsen 2004 Salzburg production. But fear not those conservatives who cry "no updating, please" because truly there is in my estimation nary a concept in sight. Carsen on the other hand has decided to cover the last fifty years of the twentieth century to great effect.

The two most recent, Medici Arts and Decca are set in the fifties for the former and vaguely contemporary for the Decca, the DVD under consideration. This is a production that took place in Baden Baden in January of this year. Overall it is as I have noted a splendid performance and at last enshrines Fleming in one of her best roles. My feelings about this artist have been somewhat mixed heretofore. That the voice itself is a deluxe instrument has never been up for discussion. It is a beautiful voice, but so often one has to wonder about the intellect behind it. For me her low point of her DVD's has been the Chatelet production of Capriccio; it is not a production that distingguishes itself nor is her performance one for the ages as it is self-absorbed and superficial. Updating it to Nazi occupied France was not an idea that works in this "chamber" opera. The updating in Rosenkavlier is almost beside the point. All the major artists have appeared in more conventional stagings. If anything this has liberated the singing actors to go beneath the surface and offer a profoundly personal reading. The Marschalin'e Act I monologue is a model of sensitivity and mood. Perhaps Fleming cannot offer the textual nuances that a German speaking singer has but she is offering a prize performance that is utterly committed and involving. I suppose that compared to Anne Schwanenwilms (the only native German singer to command the role since Jurinac and Schwarzkopf)there are some niggling points that get lost. Indeed Schwananwilms' performance remains one of two reasons to acquire the Medici Arts set; the other is the Octavian of Anke Vondung, passionate, intense and blessed with a beautiful voice. Alas the sonics and the performance of Kurt Rydl seriously scupper this DVD. The Sophie is a Japanese soprano with a bright and hard tone that is rarely appropriate. Rydl who has had a distguished career has developed a wobble that fearsome. Additionally the recording level is very low so that it is necessary to boost the volume much higher than is necessary for any other DVD in my collection. Taped in Japan it is mystifying that the engineers would have passed on this issue. Yet I cherish this set for Schwanenwilms; she is not only blessed with great beauty, both physical and vocal, her monologue justifies the whole performance in spite of other criticisms.

Fleming's lover, Octavian, is sung by the French mezzo sophie Koch. Perhaps trumped by Kirchschlager in the Carsen set she is nonetheless a fine contender for the role. Diane Damrau is a superb Sophie; she almost makes you believe that Della Casa really preferred this role to the other two leads. This Sophie is no wilting violet, but then so it Miah Persson in the Carter production; this young Swedish singer is surely bound for a major career.

Franz Hawalta is the Ochs in both Carter and the new set. He is relatively young and a good actor making his performance vital to both sets. The lowest of the low notes are probably not his to sing (for that go to Kipnis and Kurt Moll) but his is far superior to Rydl.

The Italian Tenor is sung by Jonas Kaufmann; it is my understanding that Villazon was scheduled to sing, but health reasons intervened. Kaufmann appears to upset many because of the baritonal underpining in the voice. I hear them, but couldn't care less when listening to this wonderful voice.

The orchestra is the Munich Philharmonic; this is not an opera orchestra but then they are led by Christian Thielemann who is a great Strauss conductor. The Carsen set has the Vienna Phil under Semyon Kychkov who as beome a Strauss conductor par excellence. It's is a tight race but ultimately victory does belong to the Vienna Phil.

Frankly I would hate to have to make a choice between either set. Adrianne Pieczonka is an exciting Marschallin, a lyrico spinto who commands a bigger voice than Fleming, but who also suggests a silvery tone that is essential to sing this role. She appears less emotional than Fleming and Schwanenwilms;for her truly another lover will be on the horizon. This take will not please everyone, but it is a valid interpretation. Ultimately I would suppose that the production will determine the choice for many. I find the Salzburg production witty and imaginative. For once the setting for Act III (a "seedy" inn) is exactly what you get and more. It is in reality a brothel. The innkeeper is played in drag and there are various sexual escapades that are fairly graphic. Octavian doesn't become Mariandl, but does a wonderful sendup of Marlene Dietrich a la Blue Angel. There is some nudity and I suspect Hofmannsthal or Straus would not approve, but it is truly an original take on the scene. The director is also faced with the gigantic stage, one that Carsen makes use of by staging some action on either side of the Marschallin's boudoir. The second act contains one absurdity: Octavian arrives at Faninal's home riding a horse! This was silly and unnecessary; a comment on Faninal's arrival as a nouveau riche?

I have two conventionally staged performances, Te Kanawa and Lott. I was about to write that this opera is indestructable, but then I remember when a friend brought over the EMI DVD from Zurich. I will refrain from using the usual adjective (E....T....); and although I stuck it our to the end I have to admit that it bordered on the unwatchable. Lott is a wonderful Marschallin, offering wonderful insight into this complex role. She is unusually gifted with language and her experience with lieder is evident in every note that she sings. Te Kanawa is probably the least gifted linguistically of the singers I have singled out. (Too bad that she didn't do yeoman service in Germany as part of her training.) But the voice is undeniably beautiful and she does offer a committed performance. I can't imagine that I will acquire another Rosenkavalier unless the Schwarzkopf is reissued as it surely must be--and soon, I hope. My only resistance to it has been the fact that it was filmed and then lip-synched, but then Schwarzkopf was the Marschallin for so many years courtesy of the San Francisco Opera Company, I will gladly bury my resistance to filmed opera in this instance.

About the cast:

With a cast like this I had high hopes--and I wasn't disappointed.
Yes, the singing was excellent--no weak links. There will never be another Kurt Moll, but Franz Hawlata's acting really added to this Rosenkavalier, which was, by the way, originally intended to bear the title "Baron Ochs von Lerchenau."

There have been many great Octavians, and often many have been so lovely that it was difficult to achieve that "suspension of disbelief" and accept them as the young romantic leading man. Sophie Koch's good looks notwithstanding, it is her practiced acting that lets her pass herself off as a young chevalier.

Renee Fleming is at what I'd consider just the right age to play the Marchallin, and her singing and acting skills are likewise at their peak, making her "just right" for the role.

It just keeps getting better, as we see Diana Damrau as young Sophie. She has the voice, control, and acting skills to present a perfect fifteen-year-old marriageable daughter of the rich Faninal--and she looks just delicious too! She would turn any young Rosenkavalier's head.

Franz Grundheber is Lord Faninal, and plays the role with energy and confidence that add a new dimension to the usual image of Faninal as a social-climbing idiot whose only asset is a large amount of money. Grundheber's Faninal has strength and authority that let us know that he earned his wealth. He just wants to marry into the societal standing to which he thinks he's entitled. This may be the best Faninal ever seen.

About the opera:

I found these to be some of the reasons I'll return to this performance again and again:

The "presentation of the rose" scene. This is the epitome of a first "love at first sight" experience. Sophie Koch and Diana Damrau show perfect timing as they handle the rose and look into each other's eyes. Is there a heaven more beautiful than this Strauss duet's magic moment of love at first sight! A nod to the costuming here too, as the young couple, resplendent in silver-white, looks like a couple belonging atop a magnificent wedding cake.

Baron Ochs' "Mit mir" aria is delightfully self--indulgent, and the grand waltz music accompanying it is dripping with sugar--just as it should be.

This might be the best ever performance for introducing newcomers to Der Rosenkavalier. Efforts have been made throughout to insure continuity and clarity of the plot. Nothing is more illustrative of this than the opening of Act 3, which shows the innkeeper and his staff, setting up for Baron Ochs' romantic rendezvous with Octavian getting dressed as Mariandel to show us that they are all in on the plot to expose Ochs. A recurrent theme of Der Rosenkavalier is that, at so many levels, things are not always as they appear.

One last reason why I love this performance and think you will too, is the bonus feature with various members of the cast explaining their own feelings about Rosenkavalier. Renee Fleming surprised me with her facile German, easily answering questions in a fluid German that demonstrated that she was thinking in German too. Grundheber says of the scene with three sopranos on stage together, that there's nothing else like it in music: three soloists on stage, in private monologues, each describing the situation. Composer Strauss is commenting on the situation at the same time with the individual voices singing separately and all together, to comment so amazingly on the pain, joy, sorrow, and misfortunes of life. This is what great opera is all about: the artistic presentation of Life in a microcosm.

The production is a mix of modern and old, it can confuse and I don't think it adds too much, but it doesn't disturb either. The mirrors probably are very effective on stage. For the screen it can confuse at some times. The most notable effect is having reflections that are out of focus, an effect that doesn't exist when you see it life. Fleming is a great Marschallin, acting and singing. That, by itself, makes this DVD worth it. Hawlata is great in his character as Ochs although musically leaves room for a better voice. The rest of the cast is good and makes the production an enjoyable one. Strauss music talks by itself and the conductor and the orchestra seem to fully understand the composer's intentions and creation. The sound is very good, although at some points the orchestra seems too loud masking the singers. Overall enjoyable, interesting and rewarding. Strongly recommended.

The staging for this Festspiele Baden-Baden production, directed by Herbert Wernicke and conducted by Christian Thielemann, is as sumptuous as Richard Strauss's score and, surrounded by mirrors that amplify the stage, it's as languidly self-reflective as Hugo von Hofmannsthal's original libretto. The choice not to stage it as strictly period in the setting of Marie-Therese's Vienna around 1740 is somewhat contrary to the composers' desire to recreate a sense of the light indulgence of the period (and in the process break away from the dark dissonance of Strauss's previous operas Salome and Elektra), but the libretto and score are, in most sections, strong enough on their own, and so well thematically constructed that Der Rosenkavalier can stand up to a modern, or, in this case, an almost fairy-tale pantomime-like setting.

There is a richness of means by which to enjoy Strauss's most popular opera, which flits from moment to moment, slipping from happiness into despair, from love into comedy, but principally, it is indeed about being in the moment, living in the moment, but that even within the moment there are many contradictory thoughts and emotions pulling at one. All this is contained within the playful storyline and within the music that underscores it. Like all Strauss's work, Der Rosenkavalier takes the language of post-Wagner late-Romanticism opera another stage further into modernity, not just accompanying the voice, not just heightening the emotional tone of the drama or just using leitmotifs to form a musical coherency and symbolism, but presenting the phrasing with an infinite number of meanings and inflections, hinting at deeper underlying psychology and richness of character, living in the moment and crystallising it in melody, but with a deeper consideration for the personality of the characters and particularly in the intricate web that is created through human interaction.

Consequently, nothing is straightforward in Der Rosenkavalier. Strauss is fully aware of the buffa conventions he is playing with, all of which are complementary to the period in opera terms - not least in the Cherubino-style cross-dressing of a travesti female singer playing a male character who dresses up as a female - and he approaches the scoring of the farce with no less detail and underlying thoughtfulness than anywhere else, knowing that - as Ariadne auf Naxos made explicit - that the strength of the work is in how the diparate elements work off each other. Personally, I feel that it's often rather too clever for its own good and, like much of Strauss's work, it's rather distanced, controlled and too precise - much like Thielemann's conducting of the Munich Philharmonic - allowing in little real human feeling or ambiguity, creating a perfect semblance of life like the crystallised silver rose that this production rather ambitiously replaces with a real one at the end.

A sympathetic presentation can nonetheless do wonders with the work, but I'm not entirely convinced by Herbert Wernicke's production, created for Salzburg and played here at the Festspiele Baden-Baden in 2009 with the Munich Philharmonic under Thielemann, but it does at least create a productive environment for the singers. The 1962 film version of Der Rosenkavalier starring Elisabeth Swharzkopf casts a long shadow over the work, but no opera work should ever be considered definitive. Every one of the main performers here - an exceptional cast that includes some beautiful singing and subtle acting from the wonderful, self-possessed and appropriately regal Renée Fleming as the Marschallin, with impressive touches also from Sophie Koch, Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann - brings something interesting to their characters, as does the always interesting Thielemann when interpreting Strauss.

The Blu-ray edition from Decca/Unitel Classica looks and sounds marvellous, the performance directed for the screen by the ever reliable Brian Large. Audio tracks are the usual LPCM stereo and DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1. Subtitles are English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese. The Blu-ray also contains a 32 minute look at the opera from the perspective of the conductor and the main singers, who all provide interesting views on the piece, and a booklet with synopsis and a superb essay on the opera by Bryan Gilmore.

The singing is glorious except for Baron Ochs who is miscast a bit because his voice is not right for the lecher and country bumkin that he is supposed to be. The main problem is that the opera is done mostly in modern dress and it completely destroys the mood and feeling of being in 18th century Vienna. Does Austria still have field marshals and princesses living in palaces? The servant is an adult in blackface in a clown outfit. The MEt does it better and I look forward to its production on DVD-also with Fleming.
CSL

This DVD, complete with "extra" footage, pleased a group of high school students in a session I facilitated. Much was made of the use of mirrors as a part of the revealing of the positon that Baron Ochs finds himself in. Despite critics of this use of mirrors and the supposed weakness of the French soprano, the final scene, famous as a highlight of all of opera, is more than given its due. One of the few times I have cried in the theatre.

The deathless army of fLemmings will need to go out and buy this dvd of 'Der Rosenkavalier' if for no other reason than their darling Renée is in full flow, as Renée, not necessarily as the Feldmarschallin. Those aforementioned soldiers of glamor need not read any further because you aren't going to like what I have to say.

For the other 50% of the opera loving world, read on. First and foremost on my mind is why does Christian Thielemann put up with this sort of nonsense? He's the greatest living exponent of 19th and early 20th century German opera and yet he appears again and again in the pit facing the worst kind of vapidity and the most stylishly mish-mashed productions. At least in this production he has a good cast of singers, a fine orchestra in an excellent acoustic in Baden-Baden's Festival hall and a sensible film director who doesn't dwell to long on either close-ups (except on HerSelf) or full stage pictures in the more intimate moments.

I won't/can't enumerate the countless felicities and nuances of Thielemann's splendid leadership. Suffice it to say this is great Strauss conducting in the same league as Clemens Krauss, Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan (Thielemann's mentor).

As for the production, all I can say is that Karajan would not even have stepped foot into the lavatory of this festival hall in the face of this mess of a show. Yes, it is pretty to look at, for awhile, but is such a distillation of eras and styles as to make the mind shut down from too much boggling over what the hell it is taking in for processing.

Herbert Wernicke's sets and his concept are a mild form of regietheatre that does not offend, but merely annoy enough times to set up a red rash of irritation in one's being. It's impossible to determine which era this story is supposed to take place within. Strauss and von Hofmannsthal set it in 18th century Vienna. Wernicke has set it in some alternative universe of overlapping historical periods ranging from the original 18th century (footmen and Oktavian's first act costumes and the carriages in Act 3) all the way to the 1920s-the gowns in all three acts. The costuming is so perplexing as to distract from the dramatic action, thereby lessening the impact of the three great scenes, the Marschallin's monologue in Act 1, the presentation of the rose in Act 2 and the great trio and duet in Act 3.

The sets themselves are rather ingenious, with the use of mirrors (not always successful), but the false ceilings resembling skylights in a railway terminus or vast office lighting in a government bureaucracy, detracting from the intimacy of this opera. The luxury of the Marschallin's world is conveyed nicely with lots of mahogany and gold tea services and satin bed clothing etc. It is the lack of direction and, obversely, occasionally the over-direction of the singers that lowers the standard of this production.

In Act 1 The Great One would have benefited from a production that straight-jacketed her natural personality to a much greater degree than does Wernicke's, which allows Renée to Be HerSelf at all times; tossing her hair, batting her eyes, looking up and to the side (a trademark gesture) to indicate depth, and generally acting like an aging airhead with thoughts no deeper than what shade of lipstick she should wear to the next levée. She might have benefitted from a big powdered wig, a black beauty mark on the tip of her nose and an enormous crinoline dress to mute her natural tendency to swan about like a New Jersey housewife in an expensive hotel in 'Vegas.

Act 1 is a blatant vanity display for the beloved diva and her fans will lap it up. My response was more in the nature of wanting to throw something heavy at the television screen. Her smug, self-regarding 'performance' sucks the life out of anything any of her fellow artists try to do in terms of projection of their characters, not their egos.
There is much repulsive nonsense in Act 1. Renée blowing kisses at Oktavian, tossing her hair; Oktavian (as Mariandel) messing with an oversize bolster in a most obvious manner. And when Ochs enters (a very good Franz Hawlata in lederhosen for some reason), I thought the channel had suddenly switched to an old rerun of the 'Carol Burnett Show' with Fleming going through a sitcom style comedy routine with Harvey Korman on the sofa. And what a snarky Marschallin it is who rolls her eyes disparagingly at the poor orphans, how mean-spirited of her! Fleming's great lady is a jumped-up middle class snob, not a true aristocrat. This is all a great shame because when I shut my eyes and simply listened I heard some beautiful singing coming from her. It's pretty shallow stuff but the voice is unarguably beautiful, though there are signs of trouble here and there. But these could simply be the effects of time passing on the vocal chords. You'd think the words in the Act 1 monologue, which goes for naught here, would have meant a little more to this singer under the circumstances. The direction of the singers in this act is on the level of a high school production.

Jonas Kaufmann makes his glam appearance as the Italian Singer (euphemistically speaking). He certainly is a handsome son-of-a-gun and he has a very beautiful, hauntingly covered vocal sound. Alas that he wasn't really singing 'In fernam Land' from Lohengrin, which is not really how this charming Italian ditty is supposed to sound in this opera. Oh, well. He's pure candy for the eye and the ear; he's dressed in a 1940s mafia tuxedo, just to keep you up on Kaleidoscopic fashion parade on display in this show.

Sophie Koch is very good as Oktavian but she's odd looking. She overacts but looks very convincing as a young man in his jodhpurs. In Act 2 Oktavian is decked out in an all white glittery tuxedo with top hat, looking like a girl in a Busby Berkeley chorus line making her way elegantly down the stairs. Wernicke makes poor little Sophie go UP the stairs to Oktavian, rather ungallant I thought, to receive the silver rose. The direction of the singers in this scene is awful. Damrau is directed to move like Olympia in 'The Tales of Hofmann' and Oktavian takes on the spirit of a marionette, it's all slightly disturbing and devoid of the touching charm that usually invests this scene. However, Diana Damrau is magnificent and the perfect embodiment of the bourgeois ingenue. She and Thielemann, alone, are worth the price of this film.

This is yet another case of wishing that a performance had been released as a cd rather than a film. I don't think Wernicke's sets were really worth preserving for posterity, they are really rather forgettable; sterile in an extravagant way. And with a purely aural Renée/Marschallin this might have been one of the very great R'kavalier recordings; as it is, it's a very frustrating R'kavalier film.

If you've gotten this far and haven't activated the 'no help at all' button for this review, then think it over a bit before purchasing this item. Christian Thielemann will probably make a cd of this opera in the future, he's still only in his early 50s so he has time barring his getting hit by the bus, as my mother always warned me about. The only risk is that Diana Damrau may not still be singing Sophie or at least singing it as exquisitely as she does in this film. I suppose I must recommend that all Thielemann/Strauss/Damrau lovers buy this as well. You may not like Act I at all if you are one of the silent horde who have an automatic gag response to Renée Fleming at her most self-absorbed. But we have fast forward and skip buttons to alleviate the stress. Or better still, turn your back to the screen and just listen.

Rating this is extremely difficult. I'd give it 5-stars for Thielemann/Damrau/the orchestra/the camera work and the sound. I'd give it 4 stars for the balance of the cast and Fleming on vocal performance alone, and 3-stars for Fleming's stage performance and the production. So I must compromise with a 4-Star.

I will remain loyal to the two traditional versions by Carlos Kleiber and the Semyon Bychkov/Robert Carsen version for a more revisionist approach.

Oh, and one last thought: Kill the damned Pierrot! I suppose this was another case of modern political correctness and the fear surrounding any violation of same that made Herr Wernicke jettison poor Mohammed the charming Moorish page boy and turn his character into ... (choke, splutter, gag) a MIME in a Pierrot outfit. WHY? 'But, he's so cool, like Renée'.

It is different. This gives one a new perspective on the opera. I need to watch this opera some more to make a futher assessment. Give it a try. This is the idea, not better not worse, just different. Thank you.