MUSIC

The Houston Symphony presents Der Rosenkavalier - Film and Music.   After seeing Wiene's film Der Rosenkavalier, Richard Strauss adapted his sumptuous opera score for it. For decades the film was thought lost until recent painstaking reconstruction. See this charming gem of the silent movie era when Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony unite the classic film with Strauss' dazzling orchestral score, filled with virtuosity and passion.

Music Director Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony will offer a new “Sound Plus Vision” experience for movie, music and even opera fans with the North American premier of Der Rosenkavalier – Film and Music. This unique concert experience will offer a screening of the 1925 silent film Der Rosenkavalier, that for decades was lost, united with German composer Herr Richard Strauss’s dazzling orchestral score, adapted from his popular opera on which the film was inspired.

Before it was a film, “Der Rosenkavalier” (The Knight of the Rose) was a famous and successful opera by Richard Strauss, loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. In 1925, celebrated German filmmaker Herr Robert Weine directed and premiered a silent film version of the opera that embodied musical comedy with the help of Herr Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the opera’s librettist, writing the screenplay. After seeing the film, Strauss was moved to recompose and adapt his opera score to a film score. He even converted the vocal arrangements of his opera into arrangements that various instruments could play. This marrying of the film score to the film was finally premiered at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on January 10, 1926, under the direction of Max Reinhardt.

Until recent painstaking reconstruction, the film was lost. Now this charming gem of the silent movie era comes to life for the first time in North America with Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony for three nights only, Sept. 25, 26 and 27.

Conductor: Hans Graf

Scheduled Program:
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier with 1926 Film of Robert Wiene