No-one, not even its creators Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, has ever pretended that Ariadne auf Naxos is free from contradictions. The interweaving of weighty romanticism and light-hearted commedia dell’arte is as challenging to pull off for real life directors and singers as it is for the characters they portray. But Bruno Ravella’s new production for Garsington Opera proves that if you embrace the contradictions rather than fighting them, the result can be pure, sublime operatic magic.
That process was epitomised by two moments, one in each half. The Prologue is supposedly the farcical Molière-style comedy of manners, with the naïve Composer utterly out of his depth and the streetwise Zerbinetta running events on cruise control. But at the end of the act, Zerbinetta drops her guard and shows the vulnerability beneath her hard-boiled exterior; her charm leads the Composer to finish the act full of strength and confidence for the future. This interchange was magnificently portrayed by Jennifer France as Zerbinetta and Polly Leech as the Composer.
France accomplished emotional backflips as vividly as anything physical that her acrobats could have managed, bringing us from laughter to empathy in a heartbeat. Leech was simply radiant as the Composer’s despair at the future of his masterpiece (prefiguring Ariadne’s despair in the second half) turns into radiant optimism. Both have top quality voices. The brilliance and clarity of France’s upper register is well charted, but here, she appealed just as much with the warmth and earnestness of her delivery, whatever the register. Leech is a real find. Like France, she was completely audible above a Philharmonia giving their all in full Straussian lushness. Every part of her range was deliciously warm, phrases weighted so felicitously as to make you sigh with delight as each phrase ended.
In Act 2, it’s the reverse. This is supposed to be the serious act, dominated by big, sweeping duets which are often ponderous and all too easy to overblow. But in the hands of France and a splendid saltimbanco quartet, the coloratura sparkle of Zerbinetta's interventions glittered so brightly as to form the perfect comic relief to keep proceedings in balance. As brilliant as Leech and France’s singing was, it was Natalya Romaniw’s Ariadne and Young Woo Kim’s Bacchus who comprehensively blew the audience away. This was proper high octane, high romantic blossoming-of-love singing. Kim’s tenor was huge, opulent, velvet-over-steel. Romaniw produced just as much richness in the depths of her chest voice as she generated warmth in a peaches-and-cream upper register.
Ravella and his designer Giles Cadle demonstrate that you can stage this opera very simply while being completely effective. The first act set consists of nothing more than two sets of doors separated by a staircase. On the upper floor is the block of dressing rooms of the Bacchus/Ariadne cast; the ground floor is for Zerbinetta and her troupe. A large magnetic star is seized and slapped on their own door by whichever prima donna considers themselves the more important at any given point. As the second act draws to a close, Cadle and lighting designer Malcolm Rippeth create a magical effect of stars twinkling in the night sky as Bacchus’s divinity overcomes Ariadne’s deathwish. The singing was so rapturous and the playing from Wigglesworth and Philharmonia so glorious that one simply didn’t want it to end.
The ensemble was of very high quality. Walter van Dyk’s Major Domo was both suave and implacable as he bossed the Prologue. William Dazeley was a splendid Music Master, struggling manfully to keep the wheels from falling off the entire enterprise. Claire Lees, Siân Griffiths and Harriet Eyley were a delightful trio of nymphs. No need to name check everyone: suffice to say that there were no weak links.
I can’t remember seeing a performance of a “difficult” opera in which the director and conductor manifested their love of the piece so clearly, with the result that the difficulties were made light of and even turned to advantage in such a remarkable way. This Ariadne is a must-see.
