The problem with all myths is that there is no such thing as an Urtext. They’re handed down from one generation to the next, and it’s a very long stretch from classical antiquity to time present. Rather like Chinese whispers, they therefore lend themselves to embellishments and adaptations. The basic story of the Richard Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos is easily told. The heroine has been abandoned by her lover Theseus on the island of Naxos and is consumed by longing for oblivion. As the Composer puts it in the Prologue, “Ariadne is one of those women who belong to one man only in their life and after that to no one else – to no one else save Death.” It takes Zerbinetta to turn Ariadne’s thoughts back to the real world, while laying out her own cards towards the end of the opera: “When the new god approaches, we surrender without a word.” Except that in this case Ariadne initially confuses Bacchus with Hermes, the longed-for messenger from the Underworld.
Nothing in the collaboration between Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was ever simple. Originally, the operatic story of Ariadne was supposed to be preceded by Molière’s play Le bourgeois gentilhomme, for which Strauss had written the incidental music. However, the first version in 1912 was not a success, largely due to the length of the proceedings. Two hours of spoken drama followed by something operatic was a hybrid which clearly didn’t appeal to the premiere audience. By 1916 Strauss had reworked the original idea, fashioning a Prologue with a commedia dell’arte troupe that supplied opera buffo elements to contrast with an ensuing opera seria that focused on the stranded Ariadne.
If myths lend themselves to reconstruction, this makes things much easier in the theatre. Or not, when overall coherence is missing. Dmitri Tcherniakov’s direction of Ariadne auf Naxos is the last in his trilogy of operatic works by Strauss for Hamburg State Opera. As in his two previous productions, Elektra and Salome, Tcherniakov’s stage is an opulent salon with strong hints of a setting around the time of the First World War. Cool blues predominate in the décor, with golden coving and trim. Gleb Filshtinsky’s lighting is graced not with chandeliers but an ultra-modern ceiling spray together with strips of wall lighting. Costumes by Elena Zaytseva are, if anything, suggestive of a time much later: Ariadne’s widow’s weeds consist of a black top and charcoal trousers, over which she sometimes wears a light-grey trench coat. Tcherniakov continues his foible for getting his characters to robe and disrobe. Thus, on his appearance in the opera proper, Bacchus sports a rust-coloured jumper and baseball cap which Zerbinetta removes and replaces with a jacket matching his trousers and a trilby.
Ahead of the premiere Tcherniakov made it known that he sees his latest Strauss production as yet another family drama, in which tensions between members of an extended family play out within four walls, and emotions are coloured by individual trauma. The nearest he comes to realising such a focus comes in a curious interlude within the overture to the opera itself: Ariadne is shown gazing forlornly at an open black-and-silver coffin, after which she slowly caresses the head of (presumably) Theseus and then closes the lid. Before the overture the screen above indicates “some days later”, and after this episode the curtain descends again before the screen announces “two months later”. This makes little sense in terms of the overall design. The Prologue is centred on a party celebrating the silver wedding anniversary of Ariadne and Theseus, during the course of which a burlesque is planned as the highlight of the festivities. How and why Theseus met his death is never explained.
Tcherniakov underlines the qualities of a family drama by blending the entire cast across both the Prologue and the opera itself as well as connecting all the characters through familial or professional ties. Thus, Ariadne is the Music-master’s daughter. One of his students is the Composer, with Scaramuccio, Truffaldin, Brighella and the Harlequin as former graduates. Naiad’s new role is as the Music-master’s sister, which makes her daughter Zerbinetta one of Ariadne’s cousins. Such genealogical convolutions would naturally make perfect sense to a Cretan princess all too familiar with mazes and labyrinths. The party atmosphere extends right across the evening with firecrackers and streamers, glasses, bottles and red noses aplenty, and by the time of Zerbinetta’s great “Großmächtige Prinzessin” aria there is a grand piano on stage, almost primus inter pares with the ensemble in the pit, under which she and her male suitors later cavort.
The success of this opera with its chamber-like proportions depends on suitable casting. I have heard Anja Kampe in several Wagnerian roles and her big dramatic soprano was here used to full effect. In her major aria, “Es gibt ein Reich, wo alles rein ist“, in which she sings of the realm of the dead that she longs to be part of, she moved effortlessly through her registers, producing some lovely deep notes in her chest register, mirroring the depth of her despair, for “Ach! Wo war ich?”. I do question, however, whether Ariadne is really ideal for her: the forsaken Cretan princess has a little more vulnerability, fragility even towards the end, a more lyrical signposting of the role than the steely touches we often had here.
Nadezhda Pavlova, on the other hand, proved to be a first-rate Zerbinetta, with just an occasional lack of articulation in her words, yet a commanding control of the coloratura elements ascending to a sky-high and absolutely secure top D. I wondered yet again whether Strauss had been influenced in writing her big aria by the popular Quebecois children’s song “Alouette, gentille alouette,” so strong was that particular reminiscence. She fully conveyed the capriciousness and flirtatiousness of the role but also captured the sadness in Zerbinetta’s life as she drifts from one man of her dreams to the next. I especially enjoyed Jamez McCorkle’s singing of the role of Bacchus, firmly focused, warm and generous of tone, with a palpable ardour in his exchanges with Ariadne. As the Composer, a trouser role paralleling that of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Ella Taylor had an initial uncomfortable spread in the voice but skilfully conveyed her bewilderment at the impact of proceedings. For her key aria “Sein wir wieder gut” she was much steadier and increasingly authoritative, giving the line “Musik ist eine heilige Kunst” (Music is a sacred art) particular poignancy.
Kent Nagano in the pit made the modest proportions of his ensemble irrelevant, plotting a firm course through the score without dalliance, but also bringing out the vibrancy of individual instrumental timbres in horn and clarinet, for example. Attention was duly paid to the special role of keyboard instruments; piano, harmonium and celesta. In addition, the gentle rise and fall of the orchestral textures had all the associations of a Viennese waltz.
Ariadne auf Naxos is a tricky work to bring off. Leaving aside the complex reticulations of a story-within-a-story, the right balance between opera buffa and opera seria is not easily found. In Tcherniakov’s production comedy all too often trumps tragedy, a characteristic hyper-activity on stage leaving little time for introspection and repose. Too many theatrical gestures, like giving both Ariadne and Bacchus pages of blue script to peruse, as though they were feeling themselves into their parts, remain unrelated to the main narrative. That is the peril implicit in adapting myths: when you stray too far in a quest for experimentation, you literally end up losing the plot.
Alexander Hall
Ariadne auf Naxos
Opera in one act with a prologue, Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Music by Richard Strauss
Cast and production staff:
Major-domo/Theseus (speaking role) – Wolfram Koch; Music-master – Martin Gantner; Composer – Ella Taylor; Bacchus – Jamez McCorkle; Dancing master – Peter Tantsits; Wigmaker – Grzegorz Pelutis; Officer – Michael Heim; Lackey – Hubert Kowalczyk; Zerbinetta – Nadezhda Pavlova; Primadonna/Ariadne – Anja Kampe; Harlequin – Björn Bürger; Scaramuccio – Florian Panzieri; Truffaldin – Stephan Bootz; Brighella – Daniel Kluge; Naiad – Olivia Warburton; Dryad – Aebh Kelly; Echo – Maria Maidowski; Pianist – Georgiy Dubko; Orchestra of Hamburg State Opera; Conductor – Kent Nagano
Director and set designer – Dmitri Tcherniakov; Costumes – Elena Zaytseva; Lighting – Gleb Filshtinsky; Directorial assistants – Thorsten Cölle, Danila Travin; Dramaturgy – Angela Beuerle, Michael Sangkuhl, Tatiana Werestchagina
Hamburg State Opera, 26 January 2025
Top photo: The cast of Ariadne auf Naxos © Monika Rittershaus; Photo 2: Zerbinetta and Ariadne © Jörg Landsberg; Photo 3: Ariadne (Anja Kampe) and Theseus (Wolfram Koch) © Monika Rittershaus.