Opera inside out: Ariadne auf Naxos

By Matthew Rye, 04 March 2017

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“Babajanyan’s Prima Donna was a regal Ariadne with a real sense of phrasing and dynamic shape”

Reviewed at Opernhaus, Düsseldorf on 3 March 2017

Strauss R., Ariadne auf Naxos

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Axel Kober, Conductor

Wen-pin Chien, Conductor

Dietrich Hilsdorf, Director

Dieter Richter, Set Designer

Renate Schmitzer, Costume Designer

Karine Babajanyan, The Primadonna (Ariadne)

Linda Watson, The Primadonna (Ariadne)

Elena Sancho Pereg, Zerbinetta

Heidi Elisabeth Meier, Zerbinetta

Gloria Rehm, Zerbinetta

Katarzyna Kuncio, Composer

Corby Welch, The Tenor (Bacchus)

Eva Bodorová, Echo

Adela Zaharia, Naiad

Stine Marie Fischer, Dryad

Cornel Frey, Brighella

Jonas Gudmundsson, Brighella

Florian Simson, Dancing Master

Bryan López Gonzáles, Officer

Bruce Rankin, Scaramuccio

Dmitri Vargin, Harlequin

Bogdan Baciu, Harlequin

Stefan Heidemann, Music Master

Lukasz Konieczny, Lackey, Truffaldino

Beniamin Pop, Lackey

Bogdan Taloș, Truffaldino

Peter Nikolaus Kante, The Major-Domo

Volker Weinhart, Lighting Designer

Bernhard F. Loges, Dramaturgy

Düsseldorfer Symphoniker

Reality wants augmenting in Daniel Kramer's Die tote Stadt

Eleanor Knight, 16th April

What's a director to do while we wait for technology to catch up with the complexities of the human condition?

***11

Duisburg’s Don Carlos rescued from a devastating deluge

Brian Angus, 17th May

What do you do when 80 tonnes of water flood your theatre, your sets and costumes? Rescue, reshape and present what you can. That’s what Deutsche Oper am Rhein have had to do in Duisburg.

***11

All the world's a stage: Xerxes as a comedy of backstage rivalry

Matthew Rye, 17th January

A revival of Stefan Herheim's production of Handel's Xerxes in Düsseldorf makes for a rip-roaring evening of theatrical comedy.

****1

Stars and the score shine in The Count of Luxembourg

Ilana Walder-Biesanz, 25th December

Baritone Kay Stiefermann steals hearts at the eponymous Count of Luxembourg, in an operetta so charming that neither musical missteps nor a mixed-up staging can sink it.

***11

Between two worlds: Wozzeck in Düsseldorf

Matthew Rye, 20th October

Stefan Herheim's eagerly awaited production of Berg's Wozzeck distances us from the emotional heart of the tragedy by portraying the story as a hallucinatory death-room experience.

****1

Die Zauberflöte in Düsseldorf

Edward Sava-Segal, 27th May

Animated characters are the real stars of an imaginative production of The Magic Flute.

****1

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).

Opera inside out: Ariadne auf Naxos in Düsseldorf