While the Marschallin is dressing and having her hair done, an Italian tenor performs. Now it is the Marschallin’s hour for receiving callers, and all sorts of people come crowding into her boudoir – people who have something to sell, peo- ple with a grievance, the usual intriguers, and a lawyer, who is promptly collared by Ochs. On a sudden impulse the Marschallin suggests Octavian. But for the time being he has more important matters to attend to: he is hoping to marry the daughter of the newly ennobled and wealthy nobleman von Faninal, and has come to ask the Marschallin to recom- mend him someone to act as the bearer of the silver rose which custom decrees a nobleman must send his bride. The Marschallin tells Ochs it is her maid Mariandl, and Ochs, who is by no means fastidious in these matters, finds her bewitching. Octavian had lost no time in making himself scarce, and now reappears dressed as a girl. It is a distant cousin of the Marschallin’s Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau, and he refuses to be put off by the Marschallin’s servants. lt can’t be the Marschallin’s husband because he is miles away shooting bears. The morning sunlight is gradually dispelling the memories of a night of love, and Count Octavian is just taking his leave of the Marschallin when a commotion outside heralds the arrival of an uninvited guest.
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