A Motley Crew in ‘Rosenkavalier’

Not many shows at Harvard can boast a cast and crew upwards of 150 people. Even fewer can say that they gathered that number from the Boston community as well as the Harvard campus and brought them together within the confines of a dining hall to serenade students while they studied.

This season’s Lowell House Opera (LHO) production of Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” can boast all that, but it is in some ways paradoxical.

Despite assembling an immense group of participants, most of whom are not even Harvard students, LHO has maintained its close relationship with Lowell House that dates from the Opera’s founding, practicing and performing on the stage they created in Lowell Dining Hall.

“Der Rosenkavalier,” which premiered this Wednesday and runs through March 17, is one of the largest operas put on at Harvard in recent memory, as well as the biggest production that LHO has put up in its 69 years of existence.

Although one of Strauss’ best-known operas, the work is rarely performed because of its imposing size and difficult roles.

“It’s a really hard opera to do. We had trouble finding cast members and production staff and with a show of this size, you really need backup,” says Sarah S. Eggleston ’07, who produced the show.

Music Director Channing Yu ’93 and Stage Director Edward Eaton chose to remain faithful to the work’s original form, staging it with full orchestral accompaniment and keeping Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s libretto in German, albeit with English subtitles.

The comic opera’s plot—full of surprise, deception, and intrigue—tells the story of the Marschallin Marie Therese, Princess von Werdenberg, and her lover Octavian. The opera begins when the Marschallin’s country cousin, the Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau, visits her to discuss his engagement plans.

She suggests that he offer a chambermaid (actually Octavian in disguise) to his future fiancée, Sophie von Faninal, as an engagement gift in addition to a special silver rose.

Unexpectedly, Ochs becomes infatuated with the disguised Octavian; from there, the plot takes many twists, involving more disguises and deception, a pair of Italian spies, and the police.

With an orchestra of 110, cast of 35 and technical staff of 30, “Der Rosenkavalier” is indeed a massive undertaking for LHO, which is an all-volunteer company. In order to assemble the personnel necessary, LHO reached out to members of the Boston community—­­particularly young performers—who make up the majority of the cast this year.

“[The show is] not done often because it’s so big, especially in Boston where there’s a heavier emphasis on early music,” says Yu. “For emerging opera singers, it’s a rare opportunity to learn difficult roles.”

Many LHO members, like Lily T. Kass ’10, say they value the cast’s diversity.

According to Kass, one of the handful of Harvard students who is singing in the show, “It’s incredible to get a mixture of Harvard students and outside people [and] professionals together.”