Score Desk for ARABELLA

Thursday April 24th, 2014 – Of Richard Strauss’s three well-known romantic-style masterpieces, ARABELLA is probably the most difficult to love. ROSENKAVALIER has its marvelous progession of waltzes to lilt the listener along, and CAPRICCIO boasts its gorgeous Moonlight Music and the Countess Madeleine’s radiant final scene. In ARABELLA the memorable music seems to come in fits and starts, and although the final scene is really appealing, it doesn’t quite match the sweep of either of the other two operas’ closing passages. 

In ROSENKAVALIER there’s the double-feature of love (the May-September affair of Octavian and the Marschallin followed by the thrill of new, impetuous love discovered by Octavian and Sophie); in CAPRICCIO, the Countess’s choice between her two lovers is symbolic of the operatic dilemma of ‘which is of greater import in an opera: the words or the music?’  For Arabella and Mandryka, it’s love at first sight and it comes along just when the Waldner family most needs it to happen. The misunderstanding between the newly-pledged couple is quickly resolved and they can go forward without impediment. It’s a neat little plot but somehow it fails to touch the heart the way ROSENKAVALIER does; and ARABELLA‘s musical denouement doesn’t quite thrill us like CAPRICCIO‘s does.

Despite these thoughts about ARABELLA‘s appeal, I was keen to experience the opera live again and it was a good performance overall, thanks largely to Philippe Auguin’s excellence on the podium. The orchestra of course played remarkably well and – unlike the three most recent conductors whose Met performances I have attended (Mssers. Armiliato, Noseda and Mariotti), Auguin knows how to scale the score’s dynamics so his singers are always audible and never seem pressured to over-sing.

Though perhaps lacking the last bit of vocal glamour that makes for a truly memorable Arabella (Della Casa, Te Kanawa and Fleming each had it…and how!), Erin Wall sang the title-role quite beautifully: the voice is clear with a nice sheen to it. Her performance was slightly compromised in Act I by having to sing the opera’s most beloved passage – the duet for Arabella and Zdenka – with Juliane Banse who is simply not up to the role of Zdenka/Zdenko at this point in her career. But in her narrative to end the first act, Wall was really lovely and expressive, and she was equally impressive in Act II where the passionate duet for the just-met Arabella and Mandryka was the evening’s vocal high point. Later, as Arabella bids farewell to each of her suitors in turn, Wall made the most of each phrase. 

Michael Volle, who I first heard on a tape from his appearance at Cardiff Singer of the World in 1993, has arrived at The Met. His voice is Met-sized and unimpeded throughout the range, and it’s got a nice, rather gritty edge to it when needed. His Mandryka was impressive, and hopefully he’ll be back in other repertory.

Ms. Banse, who we heard earlier this season in the Mahler 4th at Carnegie Hall, has lovely instincts but she now sounds too mature and quavery for such a youthful assignment as Zdenka. Her vibrato rather spoiled the Act I duet with Arabella tonight and overall she just seemed mis-cast. Banse made some very fine recordings earlier in her career; this belated Met debut seemed a miscalculation by both the singer and the House. When the originally-scheduled Genia Kühmeier withdrew from this revival, The Met could have seized the opportunity to give the role to one of their blooming lyric-coloraturas – maybe Lisette Oropesa, Erin Morley, or Ashley Emerson: any of them would have been more vocally apt than Ms. Banse. They didn’t know the role? Callas learned Elvira in PURITANI in seven days, whilst singing Brunnhilde in WALKURE in the same time-frame. Surely any of these young Met girls – helped by The Met’s musical staff – could have whipped up a delectable Zdenka in even less time. Oh well, water over the dam…or under the bridge.

The rest of the cast did well, notably Garrett Sorenson (Matteo) and Brian Jagde (Elemer); Martin Winkler was a loud Waldner. Audrey Luna successfully negotiated the high-flying roulades of the Fiakermilli, winning the audience’s acclaim. I was recalling my favorite Fiakermilli, Rita Shane, who sang it at La Scala in 1970, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch. I received a copy of it on reel-to-reel and incredibly, Ms. Shane had been permitted to interpolate a final high-D to end ARABELLA‘s second act (Fiakermilli’s coloratura normally just dwindles to nought). That’s the kind of thing you don’t hear every day.

Although there were many empty seats this evening at The Met, ARABELLA – not usually a major box office draw – was better-attended than some recent performances. It was already 10:00 PM when the second intermission started and I had to weigh the idea of staying to the end or of getting home by midnight. Though I would like to have heard Ms. Wall in the opera’s final scene, the idea of another extended and droopy intermission turned me off. As I was leaving, it seemed several other audience members had the same idea.

Metropolitan Opera House
April 24, 2014

Conductor...............Philippe Auguin