Scene4 Magazine | the readers blog

Renate Stendhal's article on "Der Rosenkavalier" was intensely interesting as to the opera's emotional and sexual nuances. Her suggestion of casting a physically attractive singer as Ochs, as a way of shaking up the opera's dynamics, was particularly intriguing, and caused me to think the following: has any opera company ever cast a male countertenor, instead of a female mezzo, in the role of Octavian? I don't even know if this is possible musically (being ignorant of how, or even if, the vocal ranges of mezzos and countertenors overlap), but it's an intriguing concept.
Miles Moore
read Renate Stendhal's article