Production, Elijah Moshinsky; Set and Costume Designer, Michael Yeargan; Conductor, Marek Janowski. Lise Davidsen, Ariadne; Brenda Rae, Zerbinetta; Isabel Leonard, Composer; Brandon Jovanovich, Bacchus; Sean Michael Plumb, Harlequin; Johannes Martin Kränzle, Music Master; Wolfgang Brendel, Major-Domo
I am not sure I have ever seen this work live before – and of course this wasn’t really ’live’ either but the Met’s live-streaming does bring you as near as possible to a live experience, when you’re sitting in a cinema with others particularly.
Ariadne is a complex work and one that can do your head in! There is artifice within artifice – you’re watching an opera about someone making an opera that then is performed to an imaginary 18th century audience in front of you, the real audience. However – perhaps luckily – there is only so much directors can do with ‘Ariadne’, and so going along with what Strauss and Hoffmanstahl who, as great artists of the theatre, knew exactly what they wanted and how to achieve it, is the obvious way forward. The main focus for a director has to be on:
- getting the singers to act well and react to each other credibly, establishing effectively the different characters
- getting some laughs but not making Zerbinetta and crew too gross
- ensuring that the evening ends with a bang! (a bit crude, but I would defend that summary – after all, the evening performance as described in the Prologue is meant to end with fireworks at 9pm prompt!)
- judging the extent to which Ariadne carries over her antagonism to Zerbinetta and her diva-ism from the Prologue into the scenario of the ‘main’ second part.? How should Ariadne react to Zerbinetta?
- deciding how to play the Composer’s sudden infatuation with Zerbinetta
- determining how to handle the different layers of artificiality
Whether a revival director, or the original production book from Moshinsky, was responsible, or both, nearly all these were well handled. On point 4, for instance, Lisa Davidsen as Ariadne gave a twitch of annoyance at first that was back to her Prologue character, but then reverted to her ‘stage’ character. I wonder if more could have been done with the artificality angle – why not a small 18th century audience? why not fireworks – visually probably only, not aurally – at the end?
The sets, as often with the Met, seemed fussily massive – I suppose they have to be to fill that huge stage. Obviously there has to be a sense of a rich person’s house in the Prologue but there was a preposterous large spiral staircase, hardly used, for instance, and the set seemed altogether too large for the context. It was altogether very different from some of the sparse Moshinsky 70’s productions at Covent Garden – Lohengrin and Peter Grimes, I’m thinking of. The second was basically decorated backdrops and curtains but quite why the nymphs needed to be high up in their ridiculous chariots was beyond me. Still, I suppose the sets offered a perfectly reasonable framework for the story.
Marek Janowski is a seasoned, not to say veteran (aged now 83, but not looking it), Strauss specialist and his conducting seemed beautifully paced – not over-indulgent (the Prologue positively rattled along) but radiant when it needed to be in the ‘Ariadne’ performance, and the Met orchestra made a remarkably refulgent sound for what is basically a chamber orchestra. The piano seemed more prominent than in some of the recordings I’ve heard.
Lise Davidsen as Ariadne was quite extraordinary. She has a beautiful lower register, offered lovely high soft singing when needed, and crystal clear top notes. Hers is also obviously – even if its full extent can’t be captured by microphones – an extremely powerful voice, soaring over everyone else and pinging off the back walls of the Met. She sounded every bit as good as people say she is. She was wearing as a crown the ornament once worn by Leonie Rysanek and Jessye Norman. I was bitterly disappointed to have to forego her Grieg/Wagner recital in January and I am looking forward to hearing her sing the Four Last Songs in May. She absolutely is a star,
Two voices that some critics complained about a bit, Brenda Rae as Zerbinetta, and Isabel Leonard as the Composer, both came across well in the broadcast, and both are extremely good actors. Brandon Jovanovich on the other hand sounded insensitive and straining – it makes me a bit worried about the Lohengrin performance at ROHCG in May of his I’m going to see……The other excellent performer was Johannes Martin Kränzle as the Music Master, who added to my positive opinion of him formed from his performance of Beckmesser at Bayreuth
John's musical journey 