A great new outfit for a grand old lady
Elijah Moshinsky directs Ariadne auf Naxos in New York ****
Author : Johan Uytterschaut
I have been wondering whether it would tell that the production of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos recently launched by the New York Metropolitan via “Live in HD” is almost 30 years old. It was realised in 1993 by the late Elijah Moshinsky. To be honest, I’m still wondering. One could say that the set’s style betrays another era, but I find that to be not too obvious. In these postmodern times, things still change less fast than ladies’ fashion. And, as a matter of fact, it doesn’t really matter. As long as the singers do what they’re supposed to do, the rest is, to me, nothing more than an interesting surplus, useful as long as it doesn’t irritate me. Which, in this case, it didn’t.
Richard Strauss’ fifth opera came to be when he was about 50, at which point he had fully explored what he had to offer, both orchestrally and vocally. In this respect, Ariadne auf Naxos is a show case. On the one hand, he lets go with the enormous orchestral machines he prescribed from Guntram to Der Rosenkavalier – Ariadne’s orchestra has been reduced to a very lean 36 musicians. On the other hand, near the end he asks for nothing less than a Wagnerian platform to see Ariadne and Bacchus off. You need an orchestra of an all-round soloist quality for that. The Met’s orchestra has nothing to learn in this respect (and others), and eminence grise Marek Janowsky guided it towards a perfect balance for the cast to enjoy themselves.
The prologue. The Met has the means to afford a luxury cast, and they do it without false embarrassment. However, no (what I would call) “poster rhetorics” are involved: announcing golden stars with a lot of bluster, and leave it at that. Despite the habit of presenting a well known host to the satellite audience, I am convinced that the casting management typically succeeds in choosing the right voice for the right part. The most important examples: Isabel Leonard sang her Met debut as the Composer, and she absolutely rises to the part. Her technique is masterly over the whole considerable tessitura, displaying a beautiful sound and a convincing character, without making the all too common mistake of flirting with being tearful. Great performance. Johannes Martin Kränzle’s music teacher is the perfect opponent. At 60, his baritone is wonderfully focused and rich, and his acting is sheer perfection. Thomas Allen was to perform the role of the Hofmeister, but he was replaced by the German veteran Wolfgang Brendel, a very experienced Strauss baritone whose comic gifts proved to be useful; slightly verging towards overacting, but that seemed to be an obvious choice, differing from the mostly more aloof way this character is portrayed.
The opera itself then. Here Strauss’ pitfalls are laid out in broad daylight. They are well known: Zerbinetta’s grand scene that goes on and on in displaying vocal fireworks, Ariadne’s passionate aria where the boundaries of the larger soprano stimmfach are explored and tested, and the almost sadistic treatment of Bacchus’ tenor part, having the dramatic character of a Siegmund and the tessitura of a Mozart part. Starting with the latter: Brandon Jovanovich is absolutely deserving in this most ungrateful task. He is a consummate pro, clever enough to dose his efforts with the finish in mind. Brenda Rae as Zerbinetta sounds somewhat older than she (probably) is; that may have to do with the very delicate requirements of her type of soprano. They are few who succeed in sounding as youthful and fresh at a certain age as the late Edita Gruberova did. That doesn’t mean Rae made a failure of her Zerbinetta; far from it. She acts as spontaneously as can be and she is certainly up to the part. But there is a bit of a vibrato lurking around the corner sometimes; dangerous, but no reason to write her off. The ovation following her scene was well deserved.
And then the revelation: Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen is already being acclaimed in New York as “the voice of the future”. It seems like there is little to be said against that. She is the vanguard of the latest generation of great Scandinavian dramatic sopranos: the stature and the charisma of Kirsten Flagstad, the vocal focus and carrying-power of Birgit Nilsson, and she is pretty close to Nina Stemme’s technical perfection. Simply impressive. In a role as static as Ariadne’s, it is the voice and the singer that have to do the job. Well, she did it (apart from a very minor technical imperfection – who cares!). She is barely 35; we will be excited to hear her first Brünnhilde!