Scottish Opera, 07/04/2018
Strauss : Ariadne auf Naxos
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Brad Cohen
"Sung in German", my ticket for this performance proclaimed confidently. Well, yes and no, because if the Opera was indeed sung in German, the Prologue was sung in English, and that was just the first of the little surprises director Anthony McDonald had in store for us tonight.
McDonald was also the designer of the fairly simple but effective decor. At the rear, part of a late-Victorian, neo-Gothic mansion. For the Prologue, the forecourt is occupied by three trailer/caravans, the kind of thing used as dressing rooms on location shots. As the introduction begins, players and musicians arrive, in modern dress. The first visual surprise is the Composer, because although she's wearing a blue two-piece suit, she's still very obviously a young woman, and not a young man, as was originally intended. The first visual laugh is that the Soprano and Zerbinetta arrive at the same time wearing pretty much the same outfit, something neither of them, clearly, appreciates. Zerbinetta and her swains are not commedia dell'arte, but a burlesque act, and the four men are variously disreputable in appearance, while Zerbinetta herself is a canny blend of Marlene Dietrich, Betty Page and Dita von Teese. Fortunately Jennifer France has the figure to carry that rather explosive combination off successfully!
And the last big surprise (apart from the singing language) is that the Major-Domo has become a Party Planner, a hilarious Eleanor Bron, dressed so horribly it was positively glorious, and blithely condescending in a drawling Morningside accent.
With a resolutely modern approach to the action, it made sense to have the Prologue in English, and for the most part, the translation was effective. Pursuing this concept to its logical conclusion, the interventions of Zerbinetta and her suitors in the Opera ought also to have been in English - but opera and logic do not make easy bedfellows, and it would have been logistically ridiculous! The gender switch too worked well for the most part, though the Composer's high-art tantrums are less acceptable coming from a (let's suppose) twenty-something woman than an adolescent boy. She skirted being actively dislikable in a couple of instances, which is not really the impression you want of the Composer. However, the duet between the Composer and Zerbinetta worked perfectly well in this form as in the more traditional version, complete with the spark of attraction between the two, beautifully conveyed by France and excellent Swedish soprano Julia Sporsén. Also very welcome in the Prologue was the Music-Master of Sir Thomas Allen, the soul of pragmatism, and still singing very well at the age of 79. It's true the lower voices - and the male ones particularly - have a degree of longevity denied to the others, if the career has been conducted with care, and Allen has always been a very intelligent singer.
For the Opera, the trailers were pushed to the side, and the space occupied with a table littered with the remains of a festive meal - a wedding banquet, as you realise quite quickly - and what looked at first like a low table or bench, but turned out to be a coffin (I was seated in the front stalls, and some things on the stage weren't obvious to me, where they would be to anyone seated further back or higher up). The nymphs - Elizabeth Cragg (Naiad), Laura Zigmantaite (Dryad) and Lucy Hall (Echo) - beautifully dressed in something like vintage Chanel ballgowns, white with delicate black patterning, weren't always ideally balanced, but did well on the whole. The American Mardi Byers came into her own as Ariadne, appearing at first as a Miss Haversham-like figure, in a greying wedding dress, but shedding that rather lugubrious image for something more dignified, in keeping with her steady, stately soprano, and it was good to hear a singer for whom the depths of the opening of "Es gibt ein Reich" posed no problem.
Kor-Jan Dusseljee's first lines, as Bacchus, are sung off-stage, and from where I was, he was barely audible, because I was too close to the orchestra. Once he appeared on-stage, although he looked more like a banker than a young god, the voice was bright and resilient. However, as one might expect, the show was well and truly stolen by France's Zerbinetta, and her spectacular, and spectacularly delivered, showstopper aria. Alex Otterburn was her Harlequin, a nice, relaxed performance, with a charming delivery of his serenade.
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Brad Cohen
"Sung in German", my ticket for this performance proclaimed confidently. Well, yes and no, because if the Opera was indeed sung in German, the Prologue was sung in English, and that was just the first of the little surprises director Anthony McDonald had in store for us tonight.
McDonald was also the designer of the fairly simple but effective decor. At the rear, part of a late-Victorian, neo-Gothic mansion. For the Prologue, the forecourt is occupied by three trailer/caravans, the kind of thing used as dressing rooms on location shots. As the introduction begins, players and musicians arrive, in modern dress. The first visual surprise is the Composer, because although she's wearing a blue two-piece suit, she's still very obviously a young woman, and not a young man, as was originally intended. The first visual laugh is that the Soprano and Zerbinetta arrive at the same time wearing pretty much the same outfit, something neither of them, clearly, appreciates. Zerbinetta and her swains are not commedia dell'arte, but a burlesque act, and the four men are variously disreputable in appearance, while Zerbinetta herself is a canny blend of Marlene Dietrich, Betty Page and Dita von Teese. Fortunately Jennifer France has the figure to carry that rather explosive combination off successfully!
 |
| Jennifer France as Zerbinetta Scottish Opera, Ariadne auf Naxos (© Richard Campbell, 2018) |
With a resolutely modern approach to the action, it made sense to have the Prologue in English, and for the most part, the translation was effective. Pursuing this concept to its logical conclusion, the interventions of Zerbinetta and her suitors in the Opera ought also to have been in English - but opera and logic do not make easy bedfellows, and it would have been logistically ridiculous! The gender switch too worked well for the most part, though the Composer's high-art tantrums are less acceptable coming from a (let's suppose) twenty-something woman than an adolescent boy. She skirted being actively dislikable in a couple of instances, which is not really the impression you want of the Composer. However, the duet between the Composer and Zerbinetta worked perfectly well in this form as in the more traditional version, complete with the spark of attraction between the two, beautifully conveyed by France and excellent Swedish soprano Julia Sporsén. Also very welcome in the Prologue was the Music-Master of Sir Thomas Allen, the soul of pragmatism, and still singing very well at the age of 79. It's true the lower voices - and the male ones particularly - have a degree of longevity denied to the others, if the career has been conducted with care, and Allen has always been a very intelligent singer.
For the Opera, the trailers were pushed to the side, and the space occupied with a table littered with the remains of a festive meal - a wedding banquet, as you realise quite quickly - and what looked at first like a low table or bench, but turned out to be a coffin (I was seated in the front stalls, and some things on the stage weren't obvious to me, where they would be to anyone seated further back or higher up). The nymphs - Elizabeth Cragg (Naiad), Laura Zigmantaite (Dryad) and Lucy Hall (Echo) - beautifully dressed in something like vintage Chanel ballgowns, white with delicate black patterning, weren't always ideally balanced, but did well on the whole. The American Mardi Byers came into her own as Ariadne, appearing at first as a Miss Haversham-like figure, in a greying wedding dress, but shedding that rather lugubrious image for something more dignified, in keeping with her steady, stately soprano, and it was good to hear a singer for whom the depths of the opening of "Es gibt ein Reich" posed no problem.
 |
| Mardi Byers as Ariadne Scottish Opera, Ariadne auf Naxos (© Richard Campbell, 2018) |
Vocally, this was a very strong line-up, and they all performed well. The problem lay with the orchestra. Ariadne boasts, for Strauss, a very small orchestra, though one with a rather unusual layout, heavy in the winds. Nevertheless, issues of balance should not exist, and although I was making allowances for my seat close to the orchestra, it was sometimes a problem, notably in the second quintet of the Opera, where Zerbinetta and Harlequin are canoodling on one side, and the other three suitors are bemoaning their loss comically on the other. There was at least one instance of truly tooth-grinding bad tuning, and, worst of all, several places where soloists and orchestra could not seem to agree on the tempo. Worst affected was Sporsén, at the height of her rapturous monologue, where she fell completely out of step with the orchestra, which was a great pity, because instead of supporting and lifting her voice, it undercut it. It happened to Byers too, in the Opera, and I think France held on to at least one point in her aria by the skin of her teeth. This was the last night of the run, problems like this should have been ironed out after the first, and I was not impressed by Cohen's showing here. Regrettable, because Ariadne is unquestionably one of Strauss's masterpieces, with the small formation allowing the subtleties of his command of orchestration to be observed in detail.
This is a co-production with Opera Holland Park, and will transfer to London in the summer with, I hope, better care brought to the orchestral playing. Otherwise, it's a witty, entertaining production with a cast that serves it well on all points.
[Next : 14th 26th April]