von Richard Strauss (1864-1949), Oper in einem Aufzug nebst einem Vorspiel, Libretto von Hugo von Hofmannsthal
UA: 4. Oktober 1916, Wiener Hofoper
Regie und Bühnenbild: Dmitri Tcherniakov, Kostüme: Elena Zaytseva, Licht: Gleb Filshtinsky, Video: Tieni Burkhalter, Dramaturgie: Angela Beuerle, Michael Sangkuhl, Tatiana Werestchagina
Dirigent: Kent Nagano, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Solisten: Wolfram Koch (Theseus), Anja Kampe (Ariadne), Nadezhda Pavlova (Zerbinetta), Jamez McCorkle (Bacchus), Martin Gantner (Musiklehrer), Ella Taylor (Komponist), Michael Heim (ein Offizier), Peter Tantsits (Tanzmeister), Grzegorz Pelutis (Perückenmacher), Hubert Kowalczyk (betrunkener Gast), Björn Bürger (Harlekin), Florian Panzieri (Scaramuccio), Stephan Bootz (Truffaldin), Daniel Kluge (Brighella), Olivia Warburton (Najade), Aebh Kelly (Dryade), Marie Maidowski (Echo), Georgiy Dubko (der Pianist)
Besuchte Aufführung: 26. Januar 2025 (Premiere)
Summary of the action
Prologue: dinner time at the home of the richest man in Vienna. Two theatrical troupes are rehearsing an opera seria and a commedia dell’arte spectacle, both to be performed later that evening. The Composer is dismayed upon learning that his opera Ariadne auf Naxos will have to be performed before a buffa comedy. While seria singers throw tantrums, the buffa comedians take advantage to sow discord. The Majordomo announces that in order to finish on time with fireworks in the garden, both plays will have to be performed simultaneously. Refusing to see his score disfigured by buffa elements, the Composer leaves the house in utter discontent.
Opera: Ariadne, despaired, is abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos. Zerbinetta and her four acolytes arrive unexpectedly, then a stranger, whom Ariadne mistakes for Mercury, the messenger of death. It is actually the god Bacchus; fleeing the bewitchments of Circe, he mistakes Ariadne for another magician. But Bacchus can’t fight his amorous feelings for Ariadne, while she finally abandons her longing to death for love.
Performance
The unique stage set consists in an opulent bourgeois fin-de-siècle living room, its deep blue walls filled with golden ornaments. Only the amphorae on shelves remind us of the “origins” of the owners, Ariadne and her husband Theseus, who have invited their family and friends for a celebration of conjugal love. Zerbinetta is a cousin of Ariadne, Najade the sister of the Music Master, himself the father… of Ariadne (these details, not from the original libretto, are suggested by the intertitles projected during the opera, and the program gives a detailed family tree). Following the uproar caused by Theseus’ first announcement that the opera Ariadne of Naxos will have to be performed before the commedia dell’arte play, we observe an elegant and refined society losing itself in vain amusements and futile debates on the respective merits of “high” vs.”low” art. The movements of the numerous characters on stage are quasi balletic and have the fluidity of a good vaudeville. But drama unexpectedly rears its head when Theseus announces that both plays will be performed simultaneously. These words barely uttered, he collapses, dead. Curtain.
The Opera part begins “a few days later”: its brief instrumental introduction shows us Ariadne watching over the coffin where Theseus lies. She has swapped her cocktail dress from the prologue for a non-descript black t-shirt and trousers, and a beige raincoat: we are not in the fantasy world of opera but in the daily life of an inconsolable widow. The curtain falls again, then raises with the indication “two months later”: the coffin has made way for a grand piano. Accompanied by her friends Harlekin, Scaramuccio, Truffaldin, Brighella (former students of the Music Master), Zerbinetta tries to cheer up her cousin and convinces her that she’ll find love again. Dominated by the two long monologues of Ariadne and Zerbinetta, this part requires some parallel stage action. Zerbinetta’s four companions throw cotillions, play on fake plastic instruments and other clichéd actions. More original is the presence on stage of the pianist during Zerbinetta’s monologue, coalescing in a full role, however silent, who oscillates from a bar pianist to a former (or future?) lover of Zerbinetta…
Announced by the nymphs (Dryade, Echo and Najade, herself the sister of the Music Master, and therefore Ariadne’s aunt), the arrival of Bacchus has been prepared by Zerbinetta like a “blind date”. Clumsily deciphering his aria “Circe, Circe, kannst du mich hören?” Bacchus does not seem to understand what is happening. Entranced by Ariadne’s beauty, he believes she’s a dangerous magician, while Ariadne first believes that Theseus has returned (Zerbinetta and the nymphs have made Bacchus wear the jacket, scarf and hat of the deceased). She then convinces herself that it is Hermes who has come to announce her death, thus bringing her deliverance. However, the attraction between both proves irresistible. Zerbinetta discreetly turns the picture of Theseus on the shelf against the wall, but Ariadne then takes the portrait and kisses it, while Bacchus kisses the music sheet on which he had deciphered his aria to Circe. Bacchus believes he loves a new Circe, Ariadne a new Theseus: but who cares, if they’re both happy?
Ariadne auf Naxos ends with a complete rotation of the entire stage: all characters face us, looking through the windows of the living room, as if now watching those promised fireworks. But perhaps they also watch the terrible premisses leading to 1914. Ending its rotation by going back to its starting point, the stage reveals, as a final image, the room now empty, with a last commentative action of the subtitles: Ariadne auf Naxos, written on the eve of World War I, is also the testimony of a world that is no more, where “all [its] actions and games [were] at the edge of the abyss.”
Orchestra and Singers
The only spoken role in the opera (the Majordomo in the original libretto) is the boorish husband Theseus. Wolfram Koch’s spoken interpolations did not always find the right rhythm, failing to fully coalesce with the musical continuity of the ensemble. The usual show stealers of Ariadne, Zerbinetta and her aria “Großmächtige Prinzessin”, did not disappoint: the audience gave to Nadezhda Pavlova a triumphal ovation at the end of her aria. But her role does not have the dramatic complexity of Ariadne’s. Anja Kampe totally convinces in the portrayal of a woman who goes through a journey from awaiting death to fully embracing a new love. Vocally, her highest notes seemed strained, while her lower register sounded weak at times. Ella Taylor was exceptional in her inhabited and vibrant interpretation of the Composer. Jamez McCorkle’s vocal generosity and warm timbre matched the role of Bacchus, bringing a real presence to a character often reduced to a silly silhouette. The commedia dell’arte quartet (Björn Bürger, Florian Panzieri, Stephan Bootz, Daniel Kluge) and the nymphs’ trio (Olivia Warburton, Aebh Kelly, Marie Maidowskil) were remarkably homogeneous and delightful to hear. The score of Ariadne alternates chamber textures with more richly orchestrated passages: the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester sometimes lacked precision in the former, while Nagano’s direction felt a bit restrained in the rendering of these contrasts; some of the largest tutti could also have been less loud.
Conclusion
Tcherniakhov’s Ariadne is against the grain: no “opera within the opera”, no high vs. low art, no break between life and spectacle, since life is a spectacle. Ariadne is aligned with Tcherniakhov’s two previous Straussian productions in Hamburg (Salome and Elektra), in which family relationships between protagonists are emphasized, here going as far as creating new ones: a smart move that went off the beaten track and that required, without much libretto twisting, the transformation of the original role of the Majordomo into the one of Theseus (absent in Hofmannsthal’s libretto).
The audience gave a standing ovation to the performance, its loudest bravi for Pavlova’s Zerbinetta, then Anja Kampe’s Ariadne. With its remarkable vocal cast, exuberant acting, this is a production of an exceptionally high calibre.
Prof. Jacqueline Waeber
Photograph: Monika Rittershaus
The photo shows: Nadezhda Pavlova (Zerbinetta), Martin Gantner (Musiklehrer), Wolfram Koch (Theseus), Florian Panzieri (Scaramuccio), Ella Taylor (Komponist), Michael Heim (ein Offizier), Peter Tantsits (Tanzmeister), Komparserie