An unconditional supporter of the arts, Chopard Co-President and Artistic Director Caroline Scheufele recently accepted actor Christoph Waltz's invitation to take part in the comic opera The Knight with the Rose (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
For the occasion, she has designed and had her Haute Joaillerie workshops make the rose that seals the promise of marriage of which Octavian – played here by mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier – is the messenger. A modern reinterpretation of this precious symbol, the rose is crafted in blackened titanium, with articulated petals entirely set with rubies, while the leaves sparkle with black diamond inlays. Above and beyond its role as a stage accessory, this sparkling jewel symbolises love and the higher power of feelings. It required no less than 450 hours of work by several artisans within the Maison.
As part of the creative process, Caroline Scheufele also gave costume designer Carla Teti access to her latest Haute Joaillerie collections to enhance the stage costumes, combining their colours with those of the precious stones. The jewels include a necklace set with diamonds arranged in Chopard's signature jewellery lace design, as well as a pair of amethyst earrings to match the mauve dress of soprano Maria Bengtsson in the role of the Marschallin. Young Sophie, played by Mélissa Petit, appears in a yellow outfit complemented by earrings and a bracelet whose yellow and white diamonds sparkle on stage with a radiant glow.
Speaking of this collaboration, Caroline Scheufele confides: "Over the years and through our encounters, I have been lucky enough to have conversations about cinema and art with Christoph Waltz that are always fascinating. When he asked me to associate Chopard creations with his production of The Knight with the Rose, I was immediately drawn to his contemporary interpretation of this masterpiece. I am very honoured that he asked me to create the rose at the heart of the story. It's a task that our artisans and I took very much to heart.”
Carla Teti adds: “Chopard was a very generous, proactive and cooperative partner. I had an initial meeting with Caroline Scheufele to whom I showed the sketches and explained the characters and their costumes in order to imagine what jewellery they might wear to better distinguish each of them. Subsequently, she proposed wonderful jewellery that we dedicated to each role. The rose is an important symbol of this play. It is an extraordinary piece of jewellery specially created for the show."
The premiere will take place on December 13th 2023 at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where the Knight with the Rose will be performed until December 26th.
For Chopard, Art is an eternal source of emotions. Through its philanthropic commitments as well as creations fashioned by its specialised artisans, the Maison steadfastly works to celebrate all forms of human genius.
The theme of Caroline Scheufele's 2023 Red Carpet Collection was "Art”. Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, literature, dance and cinema: all seven arts of the modern classification provide inspiration for the 76 Haute Joaillerie creations in this annual collection.
About the work
Viennese actor and international film star Christoph Waltz, well known for his roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, made his first foray into the operatic world with this production of Der Rosenkavalier in 2013 for the Flanders Opera. The powdered wigs and Viennese rococo atmosphere of this comedy, which Stefan Zweig said belonged to “yesterday’s world”, are strong identifiers of the Knight with the Rose. The collaboration between the poet and dramatist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and a Richard Strauss recovering from the sonic and scenic tantrums of Elektra and Salome resulted in a libretto of such high quality that it places the piece as one of the few operas that could be performed without music and be equally moving. The opera has four main characters: the aristocratic Marschallin; her very young lover, Count Octavian Rofrano; her oafish cousin, Baron Ochs; and Ochs’ future fiancée, Sophie von Faninal, the daughter of a wealthy bourgeois. At the Marschallin’s suggestion, Octavian brings Sophie a silver rose as a token of Ochs’ proposal of marriage. The two youngsters fall in love at first sight and quickly devise a comic plot to free Sophie from her engagement. They succeed with the help of the Marschallin, who gives up her lover to the young woman. Although it is a Komödie für Musik, the work deals with very serious themes, especially through the prism of the Marschallin, such infidelity, aging, sexual predation, and altruism in love (or its opposite, love for money).
The infinite care that Strauss and Hofmannsthal took with their work is reflected in a profusion of stage directions, which often translate in extremely pompous productions swimming in an overdecorated rococo bath. Christoph Waltz, on the other hand, filters the psychological precision of the work through his refined reading. As one would expect, he pays particular attention to the direction of the actors. By refraining from presenting the opera “exactly as it was done in the time of Strauss and Hofmannsthal”, Christoph Waltz puts his finger on the very serious contemporary resonance of the comic devices of yesteryear: Baron Ochs caught in flagrante at an inn on the outskirts of Vienna points to a certain scandal in a New York Sofitel in 2011 and to a cascade of hashtags that keep on challenging masculine power trips.
Under the baton of Jonathan Nott, the cast brings together the finest Straussian voices of the moment, with the radiant Swedish soprano María Bengtsson reprising the role of the Marschallin that she sang in Antwerp; Canadian mezzo Michèle Losier as Octavian; English lyric bass Matthew Rose with his predestined name playing the truculent Baron Ochs; as well as a special treat with the great Bø Skovhus appearing as Herr von Faninal.
