Radio Broadcast: R. Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
Saturday, October 22, 2011 at Noon on Classical 91.7FM (www.classical917.org) and WFMT Network (WFMT.com)
Approximate Run Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes including 1 intermission
Sung in German
A feast for the eyes and for the ears, Strauss’s elegant and moving
meditation on the conventions of the theater pits a comedienne against a
prima donna at a high-society dinner party in Vienna. Three glamorous
and acclaimed leading ladies join forces onstage: sopranos Christine Goerke (Ariadne / Prima Donna) and Laura Claycomb (Zerbinetta) and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Composer). After his unanimosly acclaimed appearances as Cavaradossi in Tosca, Alexey Dolgov returns to Houston Grand Opera as Bacchus and the Tenor in this lavish, sparkling production directed by John Cox and conducted by Patrick Summers.
Colin Ure interviews Susan Graham (mp3)
Colin Ure intervews Christine Goerke (mp3)
Colin Ure interviews Laura Claycomb (mp3)
Colin Ure's Podcast Guide to Ariadne auf Naxos (mp3) - Audio clips provided courtesy of Warner Classics
The Lyric Opera of Chicago production of Ariadne auf Naxos
was made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous donor.
Guarantors
Carol Franc Buck Foundation
Mr. John G. Turner and Mr. Jerry G. Fischer
Margaret Alkek Williams
Albert and Anne Chao/Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation
photos by Felix Sanchez
Recorded live at the Wortham Theater Center, Spring 2011
Houston Grand Opera broadcasts its operas nationally via the WFMT Radio Network. In Houston, Classical 91.7FM (www.classical917.org)
airs these programs on Saturday afternoons starting at noon. If you
find yourself outside the Houston area, please check your local radio
listings or visit WFMT.com to find a radio station near you that carries the broadcast.
Houston Grand Opera broadcasts are made possible by major grants from
the Wortham Foundation and from the Ford Foundation Endowment Fund for
Electronic Media, through the Houston Grand Opera Endowment. Recording
for broadcast is made possible through the facilities of Classical
91.7FM; Houston Grand Opera’s Recording Engineer is Marlan Barry.
Programming is at the discretion of member stations and is subject to change.
Synopsis
by John Cox
Prologue: Under the stage of a small private theatre in seventeenth-century Vienna
The richest man in Vienna has ordered an entertainment for his dinner
guests. Amid the arrivals, preparations, and last-minute crises typical
of such situations, the Music Master —who is manager of an opera troupe
engaged for the occasion—protests against the plan to play a light
Italian comedy, Zerbinetta and Her Four Lovers, after his student’s serious opera, Ariadne on Naxos. The Major-Domo informs the Music Master that this is his master’s will.
The young composer, whose first premiere this is, knows nothing of the
situation yet. He looks around nervously for artists and musicians whom
he can submit to last-minute rehearsal. An arrogant lackey, an angry
tenor, and an indignant wig-maker imply that there are other places for
composers on first nights; but in spite of, or perhaps because of,
their irritations, a ravishing new melody forms, too late, in his mind.
Puzzled by the presence of Zerbinetta, the Composer is furious to hear
that a comedy is to follow his opera. From the Music Master, however, he
learns that this is the price of having it done at all.
The Prima Donna, who is to sing Ariadne, and Zerbinetta are soon at odds
while the Music Master and his opposite number, the Dancing Master, try
to keep the peace with flattery. Their efforts are wasted, however,
when the Major-Domo announces that his master has changed his mind about
the entertainment. The comedy will be played neither before nor after
the opera, but at the same time. There is consternation among the
operatic faction, but the comedians, accustomed to improvisation,
respond to the challenge with spirit. It is left to Zerbinetta to win
the Composer over, which she cleverly does by pretending that she, too,
would like to settle down with the one man who could really understand
her, a bit like Ariadne, really. He falls for it, and for her, and is
reconciled to the whole absurd compromise. In his euphoria he declares
that Music is so great an art that it is capable of anything (Aria: “Musik ist eine heilige Kunst”).
The fragile harmony between the two sides is rudely shattered, however,
as Zerbinetta calls “Places!” with a piercing whistle. Its vulgarity
makes the composer bitterly regret his compromise; but it is too late,
the performance will take place whether he likes it or not.
INTERMISSION
The Opera: Naxos, a small deserted island in the Aegean sea.
In Greek mythology Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete.
Her half-brother was the dreaded Minotaur, part man, part bull, who
lived off human sacrifice, shut up in the Labyrinth. Theseus, the young
Greek hero, slew the Minotaur and with the help of Ariadne, who loved
him, found his way out of the Labyrinth. In return he offered to make
her his wife, but abandoned her on the island of Naxos.
When the curtain rises, Ariadne is discovered in a cave on Naxos where
she laments Theseus’s betrayal. Three nymphs watch over her (Trio: “Schläft sie?”)
and try to console her but she longs only for death. Her reverie is
divided between recollection of her past happiness with Theseus, which
she regards now as a previous existence (Aria: “Ein Schönes war”), and a heightened imagining of transformation in Death, to which she will be led by the god Hermes (Aria: “Es gibt ein Reich”).
Zerbinetta and her four comic companions contrast Ariadne’s youth and beauty with the gravity of her demeanor (Quintet: “Die Dame gibt mit trübem Sinn”), but no amount of their down-to-earth pragmatism will affect her.
Zerbinetta eventually dismisses them, and attempts a woman-to-woman approach (Aria: “Großmächtige Prinzessin”).
She points out that all women suffer the same fate as Ariadne at the
hands of men. The thing to do is to understand and laugh at their
weaknesses, take advantage of them by pursuing a joyful promiscuity, and
thereby turn the tables on them. The glorious transformation wrought by
love in a woman is not the work of one man only, she insists.
This is followed by the comedy of Zerbinetta and Her Four Lovers (Quintet: “Eine Störrische zu trösten”),
from whom she finally chooses Harlequin. Their moment of bliss is a
suitable cue for the approach of Bacchus. He is described with
breathless enthusiasm by the three nymphs (Trio: “Ein schönes Wunder”).
A god closely associated with the senses, Bacchus is quite the opposite
of what Ariadne is expecting. Son of Semele by Zeus, his father consumed
his mother in a fiery thunderbolt before his birth, but rescued the
child. After many adventures, Bacchus and his crew landed on Circe’s
island. A sorceress, she turned his companions to swine. He was saved by
his immortality, and is now arriving at Naxos happy and proud in his
escape.
Ariadne is convinced that Bacchus is Hermes, come at last to bring her
the death she so desires. He is puzzled by her greeting, but equally is
enchanted and frightened by her beauty and warmth of welcome. They
conduct a dialogue (Duet: “Du schönes Wesen”) which is at first
totally at cross purposes, but through it all he gradually perceives
that it is death she seeks. He, feeling the might of his divinity for
the first time in his love for her, swears that she will never die as
long as she is his. He then effects the transformation she has longed
for: the cave becomes a divine place from which he finally takes her to
dwell among the stars.
Zerbinetta points out that she has been right all along—new man, new love, as blissful as ever.
© John Cox.
Reproduced by permission of Glyndebourne with special thanks to Lyric Opera of Chicago.
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