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Julia Sporsén (the Composer) and Jennifer France (Zerbinetta) in Ariadne auf Naxos.
An extra frisson ... Julia Sporsén (the Composer) and Jennifer France (Zerbinetta) in Ariadne auf Naxos. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
An extra frisson ... Julia Sporsén (the Composer) and Jennifer France (Zerbinetta) in Ariadne auf Naxos. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Ariadne auf Naxos review – sparky and irreverent production sounds sumptuous

This article is more than 5 years old

Opera Holland Park, London
This co-production with Scottish Opera is full of lively insights, with Jennifer France’s Zerbinetta a particular standout

There’s a pleasing sense of place to Antony McDonald’s staging of Ariadne auf Naxos. As unveiled by Scottish Opera in March, it had the Holland House facade as the painted backdrop. Now, as the first Richard Strauss opera to be staged by co-producer Opera Holland Park, that backdrop is for real. Scottish colour comes courtesy of the odd kilt and the accent of Eleanor Bron, who in the spoken role of the Party Planner tells us it’s “the richest man in Glasgow” whose dinner is overrunning, to the extent that the two entertainments he has booked must be performed concurrently. High and low art collide, and the purveyors of both learn some universal truths.

There are reasons why this Ariadne would work better in another theatre: the semi-open-air acoustic, in which some intricately woven orchestral lines get lost; the overly wide stage; the white noise of a public space on a summer evening. But, as so often at OHP, those drawbacks ultimately don’t matter. The City of London Sinfonia plays wonderfully for conductor Brad Cohen, letting the music breathe and making it sound sumptuous, even if you can’t hear every last detail. McDonald’s production, in his own designs, is full of lively insight, helped by Helen Cooper’s irreverent English translation for the Prologue, in which the high-minded young Composer and her teacher balk at the thought of her work sharing a stage with “Eurotrash rubbish”.

Jennifer France, far left, as a sparky Zerbinetta Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Yes, “her” work: Strauss may have written the Composer as a man sung by a woman, but McDonald makes her female, adding an extra frisson and aspect of self-discovery to the tension between her and Zerbinetta. Strauss would almost certainly have approved. Julia Sporsén’s soprano glows in the role, even if her words are blurry compared to those of Alex Otterburn, whose Harlequin leads a slick quartet of lairy yet world-weary cabaret performers, or Mardi Byers’ formidable yet touching Prima Donna, or Kor-Jan Dusseljee’s stiff but powerful-sounding Bacchus. Or, especially, Jennifer France, whose sparky, girlish Zerbinetta wins the evening. Strauss at Holland Park is off to a flying start.

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