The leading male roles are also magnificently performed. Tenor Michael Hendrick as Bacchus steps up to match Eaglen’s soaring melodic lines at the end of the opera.
Performance is, or should be, an act of faith and advocacy. Pittsburgh Opera’s production of “Ariadne auf Naxos” that opened Saturday night at the Benedum Center, Downtown is a transforming theatrical production — enthusiastically embracing the farcical elements, but, by virtue of extraordinary musical strengths, transcending irony to provide the deeper satisfactions.
No opera lover will want to miss a production with such a stellar cast — including many stars from the Metropolitan Opera — nor the remarkable depth of music director John Mauceri’s conception and preparation of this lively and sophisticated Richard Strauss score.
The staging is a winner, too. It updates the original setting in the era of hereditary aristocracy to today, but does so with uncommon respect for the original story, both in overall conception and through to the all-important interactions between characters.
“Ariadne auf Naxos” is an opera within an opera. Its Prologue takes the audience behind the scenes to see the sincere desires, inflamed egos and ridiculous situations forced on artists in the real world. The young composer of the one-act opera that will be seen after intermission is the dominant character, whose personality is portrayed in the orchestral introduction before the curtain goes up.
The special absurdity of “Ariadne auf Naxos” is that the patron decides that the serious opera about Ariadne’s lost love and new love — a god no-less — will be performed simultaneously with a commedia dell-arte act to provide plenty of time for post-performance fireworks.
Pittsburgh Opera’s updated production emphasizes that friction between funders and artists is enduring. Prominent Pittsburghers sit at tables on stage after intermission to see “Ariadne auf Naxos” as closely as party-goers would at a house concert or performance.
The fabulous mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer sang the Composer. She excels at trouser roles, where her character is male. Mentzer, who stars at the Met at top opera houses around the world, is superb regardless of the gender of her roles” because she uses beautifully colored voice with dramatic insights and acts with a vivid range that includes many levels of subtlety.
Soprano Jane Eaglen, a voice with a special combination of sustained, cutting power and rounded warmth in the middle register, is a singer that must be heard live to be fully appreciated. Hers is a complete triumph, singing the dual role of Prima Donna in the Prologue and Ariadne after intermission. One can see she’s having genuine fun with the comic absurdities of the Prima Donna — a dimension of her artistic personality rarely seen in the Wagnerian roles that make her in demand all over the world.
The lead commedia dell-arte character, Zerbinetta, is brilliantly performed by young Russian soprano Lyubov Petrova — who became a star at the Met with this role. Zerbinetta’s aria about love after intermission is a coloratura tour-de-force that was ideally performed with vocal floridity expressing the volatile spontaneity.
The leading male roles are also magnificently performed. Tenor Michael Hendrick as Bacchus steps up to match Eaglen’s soaring melodic lines at the end of the opera.
Moreover, casting Richard Stilwell as The Music Teacher in the Prologue provided the dramatically riveting skills of a veteran singing actor still possessing a completely winning voice. Smaller roles, such as Daniel Teadt’s Harlequin and Jan Eberwein’s non-singing butler, were also exemplary.
Finally, Mauceri and the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra reached a new level of sophisticated performance. Although Strauss was famous for big orchestra scores, “Ariadne auf Naxos” is scored for a small orchestra. The musical performance was boldly lively, but it was the sensitivity of lyrical music that provided the ultimate satisfaction.
Pittsburgh Opera focused much of its marketing efforts on the indoor fireworks display that ended the show, for about a minute. Since fireworks are the fulcrum for the opera’s central joke, Pittsburgh Opera also shows with this production that it can laugh at itself.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_387066.html
by Mark Kanny
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review