Sometimes the old ones are the best. John Schlesinger's 1984 staging of Strauss's poignant and already nostalgic Viennese comedy is one such: old-fashioned down to its last velvet swag and boasting countless pairs of knee-breeches, but still looking sumptuous in the toffee-wrapper colours of William Dudley's stage-filling sets; and, in Andrew Sinclair's revival, still intelligent and truthful. Indeed, Sinclair deserves much credit for taking a rather busy production and drawing out such compelling individual performances from its midst.
Central among these, as ever, is Felicity Lott's Marschallin. Last year the rumour mill ground into action with reports that this would be her last Covent Garden appearance, but Lott professed herself surprised to hear it - and, on the strength of this performance, with good enough reason. Her soprano may not have quite its old power and she finds the lowest notes tricky, but once past the opening few minutes her singing takes on a real glow, and her spirited portrayal of this complex character, stoic yet vulnerable, is genuinely moving.
Otherwise, the principals are all German-speakers. To the role of Octavian, Marschallin's teenage lover, Angelika Kirchschlager brings a boyish swagger, lots of curled-lip impetuosity and the best singing of the evening. Simone Nold is a soft-voiced but sweet Sophie, and Kurt Rydl, all jowls and eyebrows, makes a scene-stealing comic turn of the bluff Baron Ochs.
Rosenkavalier is, by any standards, a long opera, and the story doesn't exactly skip by. Yet here that's hardly noticeable thanks to Charles Mackerras, who seems determined to shave at least 10 minutes off the running time, and no bad thing. He pushes the music onwards from the first rough-and-tumble moments of the overture - there's definitely something naughty going on behind that curtain - and is one step ahead of its mercurial changes of mood. The orchestra plays fabulously for him; and the exuberance from the pit feeds into every aspect of the performance.
· In rep until April 30. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
