Customer Reviews

Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If this is modern opera, opera has unquestionable longevity!!! I have been moved, thrilled and exhilarated by this production - and cannot stop watching it. The artistic concept of this production and interpretation of Strauss's opera will even get the composer's approval. Gone are the cardboard islands and caves and we find ourselves in a beautiful modern day restaurant. Emily Magee is a Garbo of divas - in looks, style and voice. Her acting abilities and indulgence in the role is Fleming-like, but without the self indulgence. Roberto Sacca has Brando presence and a voice that will melt you. The last 25 min between the hero and the victim was breathtaking - even more so in Blu-ray and HD sound. Long story short - Strauss and Ariadne lovers - you HAVE to see this! Long live opera tailored for modern times and audiences and I hope we see lots more form American soprano Emily Magee.

The Prologue is set up in an empty set with curtains in the back. There are no props and it is very effective, as the singers/actors convey the different messages very convincingly. The opposite symbols that Strauss and Hofmannsthal created are clearly portrayed in the music and acting, serious opera vs. light entertainment, fidelity vs. coquetry, employer vs. employee, etc. Amazingly, it becomes clear that these opposites are in essence different aspects of the same unity. The production succeeds in keeping it whole. At the end, the composer kills himself, instead of running away in despair as set in the original libretto (of Ariadne II).
The Opera is set in a modern restaurant. It is very effective and well created. The "Island" is a sociological one instead of a physical one. The acting of Emily Megee during the short overture is just amazing (no singing!). The recording has a close up of her gestures that I wandered if the audience in the theater could have effectively appreciated. The music and her gestures totally convey her state of mind, no explanations or word needed.
Elena Mosuc as Zerbinetta is wonderful. Beautiful singing and acting.
The composer ghost appears at some point in the Opera, which could have many interpretations that I leave to each watcher. The music and the voices are just wonderful.
Highly recommended.

what i like about the production is the set for the 'opera'. which depicts a restaurant. it didn't feel like a stage set, it's more like a film set where a real restaurant is used, with proper walls, doors and such. Such a joy to watch.
i like the use of cast members to act as patrons at the restaurant. the action in the opera was mostly 'realistic', with no 'eurotrashy' abstractions !!!! i said 'mostly' because i didn't like the appearance of the 'composer' in the 'opera' section. it was unnecessary. it spoilt my enjoyment of the 'opera'.
the singers were ALL good !!! everyone was a joy to watch as they all sang well, and without the need (in general) to do anything unrealistic (i mean eurotrashy). zerbinetta - beautiful, strong and clear, Ariadne - great voice (wish it is warmer - I like Ariadnes with opulent voices like Leontyne Price, or Anna Tomowa-Sintow), and the BEST thing for me is the use of an Italian tenor !!! most German tenors i've heard do not possess the warmth (most of them sound brassy) that most Italian tenors have. Roberto Sacca, the tenor, sang the role with a great musical voice and accuracy as well as with the Italian romanticism. Yes, I know I AM bias - I do think Italian tenors sound better in German roles than most German tenors in German tenor roles - they tend to sound a lot warmer too.
i am not keen on the Prologue - i do not like the absence of sets for it, period. The composer is good but i suspect the venue doesn't bring out the best in her voice, which i find lost in the theatre. maybe it's the recording technicalities. I think the role of the composer needs an opulent voice like that of Christa Ludwig, or Troyanos. Though i like the composer in this set, the voice didn't seem to project enough (still, it's a beautiful voice)
sorry to have to mention this but WHO did the make up for Magee ??!!! The high definition shows up the bad make up on her face ! It looks like Magee was clearly wearing a layer of make up that wasn't done very nicely - AT ALL!

Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss were opposites. Richard was easy going,joked, could deal with temperamental singers. Pauline de Ahna his wife, a singer herself, was fiery tactless,rude and beguiling. She thought Richard was a peasant, for she came from a better family she thought. She was very house proud. Made richard work and nagged him if he did not. Strauss's friends did not like her. Before marriage while conducting her, there was a problem in rehearsals, so she threw the score at his head and stormed off. Richard ran after her. The orchestra leader followed. There were angry voices in the dressing room then silence. So,the leader locked on the door, and said that the orchestra will not play in any opera in which she sung. Strauss stated," that pains me very much for I have just become engaged to Miss de Ahna".However, Hofmannsthal was aloof, , subject to fits of depression, intensly well read and snobbish.

Richard did not care much about Hofmannsthal deep ideas. After all, the libretto of this opera has many meanings. I think the prologue, is a dig at Wagner and Tristan und Isolde. Musing about life after death, living with it.Also,the linking together of a comedy with a serious piece is brilliant and funny. The Major domo on behalf of his master, informs the cast and composer, that a comedy and a opera is to be set on a desert Island, is very hilarious. The antics of the Prima donna, is how some do carry on. Hofmannsthal caught the behind the scenes of an opera perfectly with wit. There is so much going on in this opera that it would take pages to explain.In otherwords, it is too clever by half. Especially this version. Brilliant.Well done Zurich State opera.Richard Strauss at his best.

The composer, Mezzo Michelle Breedt, Brangane,in Tristan,the new Bayreuth version,plays the part for all it is worth. I like it when she shoots herself in the head, when her opera could not be played as she wanted it. I wonder if this was another dig at Wagner. The light side of life and Tragedy are never far apart. This opera shows this. Are not comics often sad people.Emily Magee has a stupendous voice, perfect for the role of Ariadne. Elena Mosuc as Zerbinetta and Roberto Sacca, have the right voice for Strauss opera. The conducting of Von Dohnanyi of the Zurich opera house, is swift and brings out that marvellous melody, that only Strauss can produce. As for the modern staging, I like it. It involves the audience and the conductor, who shrugs his shoulders at the camera. A marvellous touch when the Major domo is laying down the law. THe opera within a opera is inside the Kronenhalle in Zurich, a restaurant which for the city represents both past and present and has its own myth.However, I would not be without the traditional Ariadne of the Met, conducted by Levine. The singing of Jesse Norman sends shivers down my spine. This is also a Met five star Ariadne. The Zurich can be played worldwide.

Claus Guth's opera productions are known for being psychologically-based - delving into an old, familiar work - as in his productions of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas, or in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride - and seeing whether a more modern outlook and a wider consideration of the composer's intentions can't illuminate some aspects of the characters' behaviour. As such, it would seem that Guth has had all his work done for him when it comes to this 2006 production for the Opernhaus Zürich of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, an opera about the composing of an opera that is so self-reflexive that it surely doesn't need any further deconstruction.

That the opera itself is set in the present, or in a relatively modern context as opposed to its antiquity or commedia dell'arte setting, isn't unexpected from Claus Guth - but what is strange is that at least up until the close of the double curtains, there is never any sense of it being an opera - a compromised opera - within an opera. The meta-level of the Prologue is kept almost completely separate from the main opera (apart of course from the flawed human actors who are metamorphosed through the magic of opera into exquisite beings) and it is played completely straight, notwithstanding the fact that the setting - not an island, but a detailed representation of the famous Kronenhalle restaurant in Zurich, where Ariadne is lamenting her woes over a bottle of wine - is much too elaborate to be a small production for assembled guests at a dinner party.

Going to such detail and with such realism, one has to conclude that Guth clearly wants to make the opera meaningful to a Swiss audience, drawing lines between the aristocracy and the lower classes in the split between the serious and the comedy, between the mythological characters and the opera buffa characters, and is trying to find something relevant to the operas themes in this opera-class conflict. Perhaps a Swiss audience is able to derive some deeper meaning from this than myself, but it's certainly a valid aim to present a 21st century take on an opera that is itself a 20th century take on older styles of opera composition, continually refreshing it and exploring the contrasts for some new resonance.

Much as I find some aspects of Ariadne unsatisfying as an opera - mostly with it trying just too hard to be clever and witty - it does at least have this to always making it interesting and always capable of revealing new ideas. If that fails - and I'm not sure it works terribly well in this case, only adding to the self-referential complexity - there is at least always the most beautiful music and singing in the monologues of Ariadne and Zerbinetta, Strauss always writing beautifully for women's voices, and in particular putting some of the most challenging singing in the entire opera repertoire into the role of Zerbinetta. The singing in this production is superb - Elena Možuc a vibrant Zerbinetta, Emily Magee a strong, elegant Ariadne, Roberto Saccà a beautifully lyrical tenor Bacchus - but then in this opera, it can't really be anything else.

TDK's Blu-ray of the production is fine, the transfer showing the detail in the well-lit sets. Audio options are LPCM Stereo and DTS HD-Master Audio 7.1, the surround track having the advantage of the wider range and sounding marvellous. Other than a couple of Trailers, there are no extra features, interviews or looks behind-the-scenes.

Richard Strauss is a master of melody, especially the female voice and this opera is no exception. His plots however are not to everyone's taste and mostly fill niche markets. They need a little help to assist newcomers to Strauss' style. Ariadne is more difficult than most as it contains two interacting events. The singing and general recording in this production are very good with glorious sound and very good picture quality. No worries here.

The sets and costumes are another matter. The prologue is set on a bare stage, and the opera takes place in what looks like the Swiss restaurant round the corner. Costumes are rather basic suits and cocktail dresses and as for the men, they all wear black mostly with blonde wigs. As a consequence it is really quite hard to work out who is who. As the opera contains a number of bizarre characters this did not make much sense to me and the simplicity of the prologue rather drifted into muddle in the opera. Yes the singing was very good but trying to follow the convoluted story with such boring sets and costumes was not easy and in the end I just listened to the singing. A Blu ray recording should make a real effort to take advantage of the vastly improved visual possibilities to set out the story to satisfy the eye as well as the ear and I did not feel the director had made much effort to do this. If you want sound then this is a good recording. If you want insight into a complex opera then this is a rather lame effort I am sorry to say. It could have been done so much better.

If you want a Eurotrash production that desecrates a Strauss operatic masterpiece then this is the DVD for you. Any magic, joy, and transcendent musicality is obliterated by the producers' concepts.

Where in the text does it say the Composer blows his brains out rather than witness his "Ariadne auf Naxos" despoiled by a commedia dell'arte troop? Where in the text does it say that Ariadne commits suicide by overdosing on pills? I'll tell you: nowhere in the text or score. The costumes are dull, and the "island of Naxos" (a restaurant in Zurich?!) is dull, also.

The travesty of the staging might be forgiven if there was great singing; as is, the performers are merely adequate. Skip this one if you love Strauss.

As a matter of fact, skip this one, period.