Magdalena will sing the trouser role of the 17-year-old Octavian de Rofrano in Strauss’s comic opera Der Rosenkavalier staged by Brigitte Fassbaender and conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in the festival palace in Baden-Baden. This isn’t Magdalena’s first encounter with this part in one of the most difficult pieces of operatic literature: she made her debut as Octavian on the stage of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden in 2009. In the then production by Nicolas Brieger (by the way the author of the excellent production of Médée in Basil this January) Magdalena appeared together with the soprano Anna Prohaska as Sophie. See and compare for yourself “Quinquin” in an archive photo from Berlin and in the most recent one from Baden-Baden.
For more information on this year’s prestigious Baden-Baden Easter Festival that will, for the third time, host Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic and for information on the new production see www.osterfestspiele.de.
Photo 1: Magdalena Kožená and Anna Prohaska, Rosenkavalier, Staatsoper Berlin 2009
© Monika Rittershaus
Photo 2: Magdalena Kožená and Anja Harteros, Rosenkavalier, Baden-Baden 2015
© Monika Rittershaus