EIF: Ariadne auf Naxos
‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ is an end of Festival box of delights, with a magnificent cast of seventeen, including three very different divas, and energetic supporting work from veterans and up-and-coming singers. Like the Festival’s other two operas, ‘Falstaff’ and ‘Dido’s Ghost’, it takes a bold approach to staging and orchestration, so that despite the distancing on stage and in the audience, we enjoy the full operatic experience
Strauss’s opera is a deliberate mixture of styles – we see backstage and front stage, the creative process and its results, over-the-top melodrama, and ridiculous farce. The 45-minute Prologue gives Catriona Morison her first starring role in an opera in Scotland. She’s the Composer, unusually for a 20th century opera, a trouser role – worried that she needs to change her music, and furious that the changes demanded by the host mean that her work won’t be seen as it should be. Catriona sings beautifully, showing her powerful higher range especially in the aria “Sein wir wieder gut!” (Let us be friends again). She acts well too, and of course her years singing In Germany mean that she’s entirely at home in this repertoire.
Dorothea Rőschmann as Ariadne has a glorious voice which rings out to the back of the venue. Dramatically it’s a tricky part, as she must act the part of the heroine, while being undercut by the intrusion of comic elements. Four young men singing and dancing with plastic palm trees – innuendo? Best not to ask! Joshua Hopkins, Alexander Sprague, Sunnyboy Dladla and Barnaby Rea make the most of their big scene.
Zerbinetta has the most stunning singing part. Brenda Rae combines the right stratospheric high notes with a delightfully witty and characterful performance. The three nymphs, Liv Redpath, Soraya Mafi and Claire Barnett-Jones sing together charmingly in some of the loveliest harmonies in the opera.
The main male singer doesn’t appear till the last half-hour. David Butt Philips (Florestan in last year’s Royal Opera House Fidelio) has an impressive tenor. It’s a thankless role perhaps, but he powers his way through the lush orchestration.
Lothar Koenigs, a late replacement for Andrew Davis, conducts the RSNO. It’s not the full orchestra required in their recent Festival Ring performances, but an interesting orchestration, sometimes chamber-sized, as in the comic sections, and sometimes the full orchestra, with brass, percussion , timpani and two harps, as in the sweeping conclusion.
The Big Tent at the Edinburgh Academy doesn’t improve much as a venue with familiarity. It’s still cold (and getting colder) and the acoustic can flatten sound. Courage, and big ideas have worked well here – the two operas, Steven Osborne’s Shostakovich, the Opening Concert ‘Pulcinella’ with its varied orchestration. Less successful were the cautious offerings: the concerts which featured only string orchestras could be a bit samey, and ‘It’s a Fine Night for Singing’ showcased nice voices but definitely lacked that big band sound!
Roll on 2022 and the Usher Hall!
