| Superlative Imagination and Depth |
Welsh National Opera |
| Welsh National Opera- Ariadne auf Naxos , Wales Millennium Centre , October 8, 2010 |
From the first note of the overture WNO's “Ariadne auf Naxos” revival sparkles. Dale Ferguson’s set is the unruly backstage of a private theatre belonging to “the richest man in Vienna.” It is a mess of clothes rails, hampers, lights, stacked chairs. The performers for the impending evening’s show flounce and flirt. The clowns meander on with a take-away pizza. George Newton-Fitzgerald's gum-chewing, ogling, leather-trousered Wig-Maker sashays in and out of the dressing rooms.This third collaboration of Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hoffmansthal, a bit hit in 1916, is unique in the canon. The first half is all backstage ploys and traumas, the second a blend of classic tragedy and harlequin comedy. Sarah Connolly's first act Composer swings emotionally between hope, dismay and despair. The lead soprano and tenor in his work both angle to get the other's part reduced. Stephen Rooke's animated Dancing Master makes as much trouble as he can with the intended tragic opera. In the middle Robert Poulton's Struwelpeter-haired Music Master tries to hold it all together, caught as he is between his volatile protege and the peremptory, philistine dictats coming from Eric Roberts' Major-Domo. Gillian Keith has made Zerbinetta into a role of her own, including a much-praised Chandos recording released last month. Her first act Zerbinetta, in silk print kimono, is seductive, coquettish but confides to the Composer, in a wonderful two-part soprano, that beneath her carapace of gaeity she too knows sadness. No opera composer was as besotted as Strauss with the female voice. Marriage to a tempestuous soprano no doubt played its part. Von Hoffmansthal was surprised, or more, to find his young composer character had been written for a mezzo. The second act, the “opera” proper, is distinctive in that for the first fifteen minutes not a male voice is to be heard. The trio of Naiad, Dryad and Echo (Mary-Jean O'Doherty, Patricia Orr and Joanne Boag) join with Orla Boylan's sublime Ariadne. The second act opening earned a round of applause on its own- Ariadne is lit through a curtain of russetty tones. Denni Sayers gives the clowning quartet (Owen Webb, Aled Hall, Julian Close and Wynne Evans) a sustained comic choreography in the “We dance and sing” scene. Elements of the “the Sand Dance” are fitted in alongside a broom, pineapples and other fruits phallicly deployed. With the commedia troupe interpreting the desert island as a beach opportunity Gillian Keith's second act costume is frilled underclothes and white-rimmed sunglasses. “Ariadne auf Naxos” contains one of the most technically demanding pieced of coloratura ever. Not only was it sung to a standard that earned its own applause but it was accompanied with a outstanding nimbleness of foot and lightness of movement. In a characteristic touch of Neil Armfield's direction one of the harlequins joins in mocking accompaniment. Fingers sneak up to Zerbinetta’s breast before they are smartly smacked away. Ricardo Tamura's Bacchus, leaves in his hair, descends on a slightly clumpy platform of a ship. At the close the orchestra- Music Director Lothar Koenigs at the helm- melds with tenor and soprano to reach the rapture of Strauss' climax. The set turns into a heaven of stars. It is tempting to see “Ariadne auf Naxos” as an allegory for all artists swept here and there, their high aspirations thwarted, by the whims of patronage. The performance, irrespective of its quality, has a fixed deadline of nine o’clock when their paymaster’s fireworks are scheduled. In the curtain call, as wittily composed as what has preceded, the Major-Domo has a blackened cheek and carries a burnt-out rocket. Best to view it, as the Composer sings, that “the world is sweet, not fearful, if one has courage.” ....... “Ariadne auf Naxos” plays Venue Cymru, Llandudno November 18th and tours England venues until end November |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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