This winter at the Royal Opera House, Andris Nelsons leads five weeks of performances featuring Strauss’ sumptuous and timeless masterwork, Der Rosenkavalier. The starry casts include Renée Fleming and Rachel Willis-Sørensen alternating as the Marschallin, with Alice Coote and Anna Stéphany as Octavian, Sophie Bevan as Sophie, and Matthew Rose as Baron Ochs. Performances take place December 17- January 24, and will be a highlight of the ROH’s Holiday Season.

Nelsons previously conducted the piece with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2016, to tremendous critical acclaim:

“Strauss admonished sopranos not to treat the end of the first act as the Marschallin’s “tragic farewell to life”. Rather, he urged them to play the moment “with Viennese grace and lightness, one eye wet and the other dry,” a description which aptly describes Nelsons’ way with the score. No sentimentality or sugar-coating dulls the sharp edges and bittersweet undercurrents of Hoffmanstahl’s libretto and the waltzes often lurch into Mahler territory.” (Bachtrack)

“Nelsons led a bold and committed reading that wrung the lyricism and drama from Strauss’ sumptuous score. The opera’s myriad waltzes went with a luminous and nostalgic Viennese flair.” (Boston Classical Review)