Ariadne auf Naxos (Aix-en-Provence, summer 2018)

[Nick Armstrong]

Not being an opera person (at all), I can't account for the fact that I never tire of Ariadne auf Naxos - just the succession of wonderful music, I guess (I do part company slightly for the final quarter of an hour or so - but I just lie back and think of the mind-blowing Klimtian coup-de-théâtre which unfolded - literally - during the conclusion of the 1980s Covent Garden production with Jessye Norman et al. )

So I made a point of hearing the production from Aix-en-Provence this summer (R3, Saturday 24.11.18) - very glad I did, it's one of the best performances I've heard. Listened to it twice now - superlative playing and conducting (Paris Opera Orchestra under Marc Albrecht), and some blissful singing from the two female leads: Lise Davidsen (Prima Donna/Ariadne) and Sabine Devieilhe (Zerbinetta).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00019bs

Interested to look up some reviews, having heard the performance, and to find similar views expressed by all the critics I read - musically superb (though a ghastly production - glad (as so often) that I didn't fork out for tickets and travel.... Good old Radio 3)

[Dave2002]

I've only seen Ariadne auf Naxos live once, at Glyndebourne. I'm not sure if all productions are dreadful, but the action at Glyndebourne was farcical, with a squadron of bombers coming in just before the interval to disrupt a garden party, then a scene with hospital beds. The singing was sublime, particularly towards the end.

Is it meant to be like that? The other Glyndebourne production we didn't particularly like was the Handel meets St Trinian's one - Rinaldo. Again, the singing was good, but ....

[Richard Barrett]

glad (as so often) that I didn't fork out for tickets and travel....

Yes but then you're in Provence! In 2017 madame had an important birthday so we took off to Aix to see The Rake's Progress which (luckily) was an absolutely beautiful production of a work I don't think gets its fair dues. But had it been otherwise there was still the rest of Aix plus Arles, Avignon, Marseille, Montpellier and the coast...

[Cockney Sparrow]

I've only seen Ariadne auf Naxos live once, at Glyndebourne. I'm not sure if all productions are dreadful, but the action at Glyndebourne was farcical, with a squadron of bombers coming in just before the interval to disrupt a garden party, then a scene with hospital beds. The singing was sublime, particularly towards the end.

Is it meant to be like that? The other Glyndebourne production we didn't particularly like was the Handel meets St Trinian's one - Rinaldo. Again, the singing was good, but ....

I saw Ariadne at ROH first, and didn't particularly object to the Glyndebourne production and like you I enjoyed the music and vocal performances. But then I have but a shallow interest in Strauss (and, truth be told, not that profound a knowledge of Opera generally*** - although I go to plenty of it and enjoy it greatly).

Although Ariadne didn't jar with me, Rinaldo at Glyndebourne certainly stuck in my craw - I thought the jolly hockey sticks was risible in the extreme and just shut my eyes a lot of the time. I certainly won't be trecking south for the revival next year, and am amazed they think their audience, in general, will.....

OTOH hand, their production of Saul was very good, and again the performance wonderful. Of course, to state the obvious, it all depends on the producer and his concept and I suppose they go along with it (up to a point, perhaps). I should add the producers to my own little list of performers and producers to avoid - or hold back in booking far ahead, at least.

***Mrs CS has the temerity, in general conversation when I am present to describe my interest in Operatic music as bordering on obsessive ( - context of a gender stereotype). I don't think she has lived with a football fan or similar and doesn't know what constitutes a truly obsessive interest. (At least there is usually a choice of performance dates - my only uncompromising requirement has been to get to a performance of Mahler 8th****).

[Dave2002]

I saw Ariadne at ROH first, and didn't particularly object to the Glyndebourne production and like you I enjoyed the music and vocal performances. But then I have but a shallow interest in Strauss (and, truth be told, not that profound a knowledge of Opera generally*** - although I go to plenty of it and enjoy it greatly).

Although Ariadne didn't jar with me, Rinaldo at Glyndebourne certainly stuck in my craw - I thought the jolly hockey sticks was risible in the extreme and just shut my eyes a lot of the time. I certainly won't be trecking south for the revival next year, and am amazed they think their audience, in general, will.....

OTOH hand, their production of Saul was very good, and again the performance wonderful. Of course, to state the obvious, it all depends on the producer and his concept and I suppose they go along with it (up to a point, perhaps). I should add the producers to my own little list of performers and producers to avoid - or hold back in booking far ahead, at least.

***Mrs CS has the temerity, in general conversation when I am present to describe my interest in Operatic music as bordering on obsessive ( - context of a gender stereotype). I don't think she has lived with a football fan or similar and doesn't know what constitutes a truly obsessive interest. (At least there is usually a choice of performance dates - my only uncompromising requirement has been to get to a performance of Mahler 8th).

Saul was brilliant - saw it in the most recent revival.

I like a lot of Strauss - Rosenkavalier, Ariadne plus some of the orchestral music. Some of the other operas probably have beautiful music - Capriccio, but the plots leave me somewhat out of it. I didn't actually dislike the Glyndebourne Ariadne, but I felt it was totally bonkers, but I don't really know "what it's supposed to be". The singing and other musical aspects of that production were not just good, but sublime, so like Cali I'm just not quite sure why I like it so much.

I agree with you about Rinaldo - I wouldn't want to see that production or a revival of it again.

Some (many?) of ENO's recent productions have had their crazy moments. Don Giovanni and Fidelio to name but two - though listeners on the radio wouldn't have noticed.

[Keraulophone]

some blissful singing from the two female leads: Lise Davidsen ...

I recently had the great pleasure to hear Lise Davidsen making her Royal Opera House debut singing three roles in The Ring: Freia (Das Rheingold), Ortlinde (Die Walküre) and Third Norn (Götterdämmerung). A gorgeous, thrilling voice, and also a decent actress; surely a future Brünnhilde, as I noted in one of my Ring reports. There was a Danish Radio recording at www.dr.dk of her singing the Four Last Songs of R.Strauss with V.Petrenko, but it may no longer be available.

[Keraulophone]

Just found a different performance of the Four Last Songs with Ms Davidsen and the Copenhagen Philharmonic / Toshiyuki Kamioka:

Starts c. 1h 23' 55" in:

https://www.dr.dk/radio/p2/p2-koncerten/p2-koncerten-richard-strauss-og-lise-davidsen

[Conchis]

Covent Garden's production (Christof Loy) is very good, I think. It's getting on for almost twenty years' old now.


Personally, I love the final duet between Ariadne and Bacchus, even though Strauss wrote it to deliberately torture the tenor who sings it (he loathed the tenor voice).

[Keraulophone]

(he loathed the tenor voice)

Is that why he caused the Italian Tenor (Rosenkavalier) to be interrupted while in full flow?!

[Conchis]

Is that why he caused the Italian Tenor (Rosenkavalier) to be interrupted while in full flow?!

I believe so. Herod in Salome doesn't have a great time, either.

[Pulcinella]

Some (many?) of ENO's recent productions have had their crazy moments. Don Giovanni and Fidelio to name but two - though listeners on the radio wouldn't have noticed.

I'm often amused by the emphasis given to the producer/production in broadcasts: perhaps it's their (The Met's/R3's) way of trying to make us feel 'involved'?

[Dave2002]

I'm often amused by the emphasis given to the producer/production in broadcasts: perhaps it's their (The Met's/R3's) way of trying to make us feel 'involved'?

Yes, but having Florestan shot in Fidelio, or Leporello switch with the Don (did that really happen?) in Don Govanni is presumably not what the composers expected. In La Traviata, having Violetta more or less digging her own grave and falling into it - again - you won't detect that on the radio. Knowing about the producer/production can influence whether one wants to see a production, rather than simply listening to it. Despite some adverse criciticism from others round here, I really liked Hamlet by Brett Dean as a production, whereas I did not like the Exterminating Angel by Thomas Ades. Others have expressed different opinions based on the music perhaps, rather than the productions.

[Nick Armstrong]

I've only seen Ariadne auf Naxos live once, at Glyndebourne. I'm not sure if all productions are dreadful, but the action at Glyndebourne was farcical, with a squadron of bombers coming in just before the interval to disrupt a garden party, then a scene with hospital beds. The singing was sublime, particularly towards the end.

Is it meant to be like that?

I saw that too and also found it farcical and annoying. Wasn't too enamoured of the singing either - I've never enjoyed Soile Isokoski's voice particularly and she seemed to be well past her best to me.

I don't think it's 'meant to be' like that! Although the eccentric nature of the 'story' is probably more vulnerable than most to tricksy productions (like the Provence one itself which was slated universally as far as I can see).

I keep going on about it, but that production at CG in 1985 was a stunner though, so it can be done. Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle as Zerbinetta, Jeffery Tate in the pit, and a coherent production which became transcendental towards the end.... (Very sadly no videos or even photos to speak of )

[Pulcinella]

I keep going on about it, but that production at CG in 1985 was a stunner though, so it can be done. Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle as Zerbinetta, Jeffery Tate in the pit, and a coherent production which became transcendental towards the end.... (Very sadly no videos or even photos to speak of )

I saw that too, and concur.
If memory is right, I saw a revival too, with Gruberova as Zerbinetta but I forget who else.
Is there an ROH performance archive? A quick Google didn't reveal anything.

[Nick Armstrong]

I saw that too, and concur.
If memory is right, I saw a revival too, with Gruberova as Zerbinetta but I forget who else.
Is there an ROH performance archive? A quick Google didn't reveal anything.

Yes I saw one with Gruberova - it was one of those productions (rare!) that sent me straight back to the box office - I think I saw it 4 times. One of the shows was with Anna Tomowa-Sintow in place of Jessye, didn't have quite the magic... (EDIT - ah yes, must have been the 1987 revival just posted by vinblanc. I think I saw that once, having seen the original 1985 Jessye N/Kathleen B staging 3 times.... )

I've searched high and low for any extended visual record of the production, without success. The only thing I have is a documentary about Jessye, made around the same time, which includes a couple of scenes which were filmed for the programme (which itself has vanished without public trace): but by happy luck, its producer became a lawyer whom I knew quite well, and he lent me his VHS copy from which I was able to make a DVD. So I can get a quick visual 'fix'. But such a shame that the magic of that final transformation of the entire stage into a version of Klimt's 'The Kiss' (with Ariadne's drab cloak turning inside out into a glittering robe for the two lovers) seems to be lost save to the mind's eye....