Ariadne auf Naxos

Ariadne Auf Naxos over-time has become one of my favourite Strauss operas alongside Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra and Salome. This Ariadne is not the best I've seen, I do prefer the Janowitz, Norman and Voight DVDs myself, finding the production values much more appealing with more beautiful sets and costumes that don't take us out of the setting(just when here are we ever going to be rid of the long overcoat cliché?). The staging can be a form of annoyance, most of the time it is witty and moving but the slow-motion posturing in the party scene and gratuitous walk-ons can get tiring after a while. However, the music is some of Strauss' very best, and as you'd expect the orchestra do do justice to the long soaring lines as does Davis' conducting. The singing is just as wonderful. Susan Anthony as Ariadne shows no signs of a wobble or harshness, the silvery clarity(reminding one slightly of Janowitz) is all very warm and beautiful. Her acting is also commanding. Jon Villars is a little stolid, then again what do you expect in a somewhat thankless role like Bacchus and with his ridiculous costume, but his top notes ring and the tone generally spins like gold. There is also a fantastic Zerbinetta courtesy of Iride Martinez, amusing with dazzling colouratura, and a moving assumption of the Composer from Sophie Koch. Zerbinetta's fellow conspirators are also charming, and despite a slightly unsettled start the nymphs won me over. Friederich Wilhelm Junge is delightful in the non-singing role of the MajorDomo, and while Theo Adam is well past his best he was nice to see as the Music Master. The sound, video and picture quality are fine. Overall, not everybody will be enthused by the staging and production values but the singing and musical values are so outstanding I found myself liking this Ariadne a lot. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This 1999 (released 2000) production of Richard Strauss' 1912 (rev. 1916) opera "Ariadne auf Naxos" is very stylishly done with not too many anachronisms (yes, video cameras and screens on stage and the usual black leather outfits without which "contemporary" operatic productions cannot, apparently, exist.). There are, no doubt, better versions on DVD but there is little I can fault on this one.

The history of the opera is odd in that it was originally the entertainment at the end of Strauss' incidental music for Moliere's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" in German translation. ("Der Burger als Edelman".) Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss' first important librettist was of a philosophic turn of mind as was also the second, Stefan Zweig and their librettos tend to be rather "talky". Strauss' music seems the opposite, consisting of gorgeous washes of romantic sound and melodies projected by his virtuoso orchestration. But much of the music, particularly in the early part of the opera could have been written by Strauss in his sleep. Coming right after "Der Rosenkavalier", it is perhaps a bit disappointing but here patience has its rewards.

The most ravishing music early on is given to the Commedia del Arte players who interrupt and comment on Ariadne's anguish after being deserted by Theseus and try to cheer her. In this opera, Strauss' love for the female voice is much in evidence. The part of the (male) composer, a surrogate for Strauss himself, is taken by a female soprano (Octavian in Rosenkavalier is his most famous example of a "trouser role" rather like Cherubino in Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro".) The cast is generally quite good; Susan Anthony as the Prima-Donna (Ariadne) does justice to the part especially when the opera proper gets underway. Zerbinetta (Iride Martinez) negotiates her very difficult coloratura aria with ease and she projects her coquettish and cynical aspect well. Friedrich Wilhelm Junge is a standout in the non-singing part of the authoritarian majordomo and Jon Villars as the Tenor/Bacchus and Sophie Koch as the composer are quite capable. Theo Adam as the Music-Master has long been beyond his vocal prime but his part is relatively small and he carries it off well.

The production and direction are also very well done.

8 out of 10

"Ariadne auf Naxos," as conceived by librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, is a burlesque of "Tristan und Isolde" cum "Siegfried." It travesties grand opera, and opera's rarefied personages and preoccupations (here love and loss), as it meditates on the meeting of art as inspiration and art as entertainment, on the uniting of classic and pop, on the presence of noble concepts in and out of their element, on love and lust. It invites the viewer to suspend disbelief and to disbelieve simultaneously, and it is therefore a comic opera, an opera buffa, not far removed in spirit from the Marx Brothers' send-up in "A Night at the Opera." The Tristan myth occupied Richard Wagner, of course, but it also powered Donizetti's comic opera "The Elixir of Love."

This is not a bad concept. The travesty role in opera -- a woman dressing as a man -- has historically served the same purpose, and it is therefore no accident that Richard Strauss, whose music in "Ariadne" is gorgeous and sophisticated as always, makes the male Composer, performed here by the beautiful Sophie Koch, a travesty role. Composers, he seems to be saying, are travesties. No matter how refined their preoccupations, they ultimately serve commercial ends. And so, if the richest man in Vienna requires the simultaneous performance for his guests of a grand opera and an Italian commedia dell'arte so that the fireworks in the garden may begin precisely at 10:00 p.m., it shall be done.

So much for the concept. The production here is moved to the present, and except for some slow-motion posturing in the party scenes, that particular transfiguration works. The costumes are spectacular. The lighting is great. The playing and singing in this Dresden production are excellent. Susan Anthony as the Prima Donna/Ariadne and Jon Villars at the Tenor/Bacchus (mistaken by lovesick Ariadne for her beloved Theseus) are in good voice. Ms. Koch, besides being fun to watch, also sings well. Even Friedrich Wilhelm Junge in the non-singing role of the Major Domo is a feast for the eyes.

Strauss never wrote a bad note of music. Maybe the trio that ends "Rosenkavalier" is to die for, but the trio of Echo, Naiad, and Dryad in this opera, for example, is pretty darn good too. If you like Strauss, you'll enjoy this performance.