Seen and Heard Opera
Review
Strauss, Arabella:
Garsington Opera, 19th June 2005 (H-T W)
Ever since Leonard Ingram founded his opera festival in front
of the terrace of his Jacobean Manor House in Garsington, south
of Oxford, in 1993, Haydn, Rossini and Mozart - soon to be followed
by Richard Strauss – have established themselves as the
house composers. Since 1994, the conductor Elgar Howarth and the
director/designer David Fielding have created memorable performances
of “Capriccio”, “Daphne”, “Die ägyptische
Helena”, “Die Liebe der Danae”, “Die schweigsame
Frau” and “Intermezzo”; Garsington became the
English Mecca for the fans of Richard Strauss. This year, the
same team tackled “Arabella”, but for the first time
failed to deliver the essence of an opera.
This lyrical comedy in three acts, the last collaboration
between Strauss and the Austrian neo-romantic poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal,
had its world premiere at the State Opera in Dresden on the 1st
of July 1933. The essence of the piece, light hearted and set
in Vienna of 1860, is charm and innocence mixed with a touch of
Viennese sweetness. It asks for a well-balanced cast and for a
sensitive and delicate production style. David Fielding found
it appropriate however to update the story to the hectic 192Os.
It took place in the Hotel Österreich, the first two acts
in the Zodiac Bar, the last act in one of its floors with a staircase
leading to another floor. Art deco and black and white
dominated.
From its beginning, the short prelude was full of unnecessary
action. Will producers ever accept that any prelude belongs entirely
to the composer to create the right atmosphere? The story is about
the penniless Count Theodor Waldner, his wife and his two daughters,
Arabella and Zdenka, the latter dressed as a boy to direct the
interest of rich suitors towards the beautiful Arabella. With
the sudden arrival of a deus ex machina, alias Mandryka,
a Croatian landowner with lots of money who has fallen madly in
love with Arabella after having seen her picture, havoc ensues
because of Mandryka's uncontrolled jealousy. Only at the very
end, when Arabella brings Mandryka a glass of water as a sign
of her ever- lasting love for him, is harmony restored.
The plot is full of subtle details, with extreme,
as well as understated, emotions mixed up with an endless variety
of comic and sentimental situations. All of it is Strauss and
Hofmannsthal par excellence and, for me, two quotations
from “Rosenkavalier” are omnipresent; the Marschalin´s
words “Ist halt eine Farce, und weiter nichts” and
the famous duet between Octavian and Sophie “Ist ein Traum,
kann nicht wirklich sein, daß wir zwei beeinander sein.”
This `beeinander´ (together-''ness") may be constantly
interrupted by unforeseen circumstances, but it forms the basis
for this purest of operatic stories dealing as it does with a
lasting love that is ready to burgeon even long before Arabella
and Mandryka meet each other eye to eye.
Sadly, there was not much togetherness of any sort in this production.
It all seemed more of a constant battle between who could be the
noisier, the orchestra or the singers. This led to a kind of misplaced
Wagnerian brutality and all the beauty of the music went down
the drain. Orla Boylan (Arabella) possessed the right timbre,
but had been put into an upright straightjacket, while Peter Coleman-Wright
(Mandryka) sounded like an overpowered Wotan. Lorina Gore (Fiakermilli)
tried to outdo him in the ball scene and Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts
(Matteo), who should at least been given a wig to make him a little
more sympathetic, had to act like an hysterical mad man. I saw
no reason at all why Zdenka (Cora Burggraf), the only ideally
cast member within this difficult to digest evening, should fall
in love with him. Stephen Richardson (Graf Waldner) and the three
suitors were much more acceptable, but they could make little
difference to an overly hectic and fussy production without the
slightest charm, humour, warmth or sentimentality. Even Elgar
Howarth in the pit was not capable of delivering the score according
to the intentions of Richard Strauss.
None of this was the singers´ fault, but
whoever did the casting had not considered that in this small
and tent like auditorium, the sound has only limited space in
which to travel. On the other hand, the production team seemed
– as is so often the case nowadays – to have little
interest in following the instructions of either composer or librettist,
but chose instead to indulge their own mysterious egos - a particularly
dangerous practice with artists like Strauss and Hofmannsthal,
who were full-blooded theatre people and knew their trade only
too well. I do love this opera, but this time I left it with a
headache.
Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt
Photographs © Johan Persson
