Ariadne auf Naxos
Richard Strauss
Welsh National Opera
New Theatre, Cardiff
If I wore a hat I would take it off to Neil Armfield for creating an Ariadne auf Naxos I can at last get my head around.
Strauss' opera that sees two shows, one from a comic troupe the other a serious opera, having to be performed simultaneously, has always left me cold: a clever conceit with some beautiful singing.
Apparantly Armfield had to work at "connecting" with Ariadne. It has paid off with a wonderfully intelligent, theatrical show to open WNO's last season at the New Theatre.
In The Prologue we are backstage of a private theatre in a rich Viennese home. The audience is in stitches in seconds as Armfield's ensemble skilfully milk the comic possibilities of the contrasting groups of performers.
The Composer is filled with angst, a role sympathetically taken by Alice Coote, excelling with the rich lyrical role, while the splendidly superior and somewhat jaded Major Domo from Richard Van Allen keeps them all in touch with reality.
Central to Armfield's take is that Zerbinetta and the clowns are practical and streetwise. It is the "serious" artistes who are presented as ludicrous.
This contrasts with the Opera - the simultaneous presentation of the two shows - when the clown troupe and Zerbinetta, try to cheer up the intense Ariadne and her nymphs as she longs for death.
Janice Watson is the ridiculously haughty soprano who is transformed into the classical Ariadne, thrilling in those arias where she recalls happier days with Theseus and longing for death.
Zerbinetta, is marvellously taken by Polish soprano Katarzyna Dondalska. The role has some of Strauss' most demanding and sparkling arias to delight with, and delight she does. Coquettish but "sussed", trying to talk to Ariadne woman to woman and ultimately proved right when another man turns up to take Theseus' place.
That man is the pompous tenor of the Prologue and Bacchus of the Opera. God-like, cleverly descending on a stage lift, Peter Hoare fairly grabs your attention with a robust vocal performance. His contrast, the Harlequin, is a heartily sung D'Arcy Bleiker.
The clowns of Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks, Tim Mirfin and Wynne Evans actually were, in the main, funny while Ariadne's three nymphs, Gail Pearson, Arlene Rolph and Elizabeth Donovan were beautifully sunk, with clever choreography from Denni Sayers.
A superbly received production with conductor Carlo Rizzi, having retaken the reins of WNO musical director, receiving tumultuous applause.
New Theatre, Cardiff: September 17 and 25; Swansea Grand Theatre: October 15 and the North Wales Theatre, Llandudno: November 11.
