Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose or The Rose-Bearer), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.[2] It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac.[3] It was first performed at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on 26 January 1911 under the direction of Max Reinhardt.[4] Until the premiere the working title was Ochs von Lerchenau.[5] (The choice of the name Ochs is not accidental, for in German Ochs means ox, which depicts the character of the Baron throughout the opera.)