Time stands still: Presentation of the Rose
Mar 31st, 2009 by oldfogey
This charming and heart-lifting moment from the second act of Richard Strauss’s opera ‘Der Rosenkavalier’. The young noble, Octavian, is despatched to present a silver rose to Sophie, on behalf of the man she is betrothed to, but never seen. Sophie is sixteen, pretty, innocent and just out of convent school. She is to marry the noble, but boorish, Baron Ochs, whose fortune will save her family.
Octavian arrives to great fanfare and presents the silver rose, with due formality. Sophie takes it, and overwhelmed by the solemnity of the occasion and the beauty of the ceremony, is unable to conceal her emotions. They are heavenly, not earthly roses. Roses from Paradise. A greeting from Heaven. When has she ever been so happy. Octavian is bewitched. He hardly knows himself. It is a moment neither will forget till they die.
Strauss plays the innocence and beauty for all its worth in a duet of sublime beauty. Sophie captures it - ‘for this is time and eternity in one blessed moment’.
The moment passes and Sophie chatters on, like the child she is. Octavian can’t take his eyes off her.
Teresa Stich Randall is Sophie, Christa Ludwig Octavian.
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