Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Arabella, lyric comedy in three acts(1930)
Count Waldner – Albert Pesendorfer, bass
Adelaide – Doris Soffel, mezzo-soprano
Arabella – Sara Jakubiak, soprano
Zdenka – Elena Tsallagova, soprano
Mandryka – Russell Braun, baritone
Matteo – Robert Watson, tenor
Berlin Deutsche Opera Ballet, Chorus & Orchestra/Donald Runnicles
rec. 2023, Deutsche Oper, Berlin
Naxos 2.110774 DVD [160]

I yield to none in my admiration for Salome and Elektra, but my experience of Strauss’s later operas has been decidedly mixed, although I would not go as far as Klemperer, who said that after these two works ‘everything was covered with sugared water.’ I care neither for the story nor the music of Der Rosenkavalier, think Ariadne auf Naxos charming but silly, Intermezzo a Zeitoper which has become very much a period piece and Capriccio, apart from the lovely Prelude, rather repetitive and sentimental. So I approached Arabella with some curiosity.

This was the last collaboration between Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who had provided the librettos for five of Strauss’s previous operas, starting with Elektra. He died in 1929, having finalized the text only of the first act. Strauss made a few changes in the later acts, as was his practice, but, out of respect, he did not make many. The opera was premiered in the ominous year of 1933.

Strauss had been asking Hofmannsthal for a second Rosenkavalier, but Arabella is not that The story is set in Vienna on a Shrove Tuesday around 1860 and is a romantic comedy. In the first act we meet Count Waldner and his wife Adelaide, who are impoverished but live in a hotel. They have two daughters. They want to make a wealthy marriage for the elder, Arabella, but, to avoid having to find a dowry for their younger daughter, Zdenka, they have disguised her as a boy, ‘Zdenko.’  This is a breeches part, like Octavian in Rosenkavalier or Cherubino in Figaro and ‘Zdenko’ sports a moustache. Zdenka secretly loves Matteo, an officer, who is courting Arabella but regards ‘Zdenko’ as his best friend. Arabella has several suitors but becomes interested in Mandryka, whom Waldner wants for her as he is wealthy and the nephew of an old friend of his.

In the second act Arabella and Mandryka attend a ball, and she agrees to marry him. However, ‘Zdenko’ arranges an assignation for Matteo in Arabella’s room, He thinks it is with Arabella but Zdenka plans to keep it herself. Mandryka finds out, thinks it is Arabella who is betraying him and is furious.

In the third act Matteo thinks he has spent the night with Arabella. Mandryka challenges Matteo but Zdenka appears in her nightdress, showing she is a girl after all and explains her love for Matteo. Arabella asks her father to bless the union of Zdenka and Matteo and Mandryka and Arabella are reconciled.

Hofmannsthal was a distinguished writer, but I have to say that I do not think this libretto to be one of his better efforts. Arabella herself is a cipher, with no character; she exists only to be a vehicle for Strauss to indulge his love of the soprano voice. Zdenka is more interesting, chafing at her male role and inveigling her beloved into bed thanks to the bed trick, like Mariana in Measure for Measure and Helena in All’s Well that Ends Well. Neither of the two male parts is attractive: Matteo considers ‘Zdenko’ his best friend but does not recognize her in bed, while Mandryka immediately after his engagement to Arabella suspects her and makes a drunken jealous scene. Both the second and third act have longueurs and the denouement is far too protracted.

The music, as I find with much of the later Strauss, is fluent, mellifluous but not especially memorable. There is an attractive aria for Arabella about knowing she will know the right man and another long one at the end of the first act. I find Zdenka, another soprano, a more lively character though she has fewer opportunities to shine. Mandryka is, unusually for the hero, not a tenor but a baritone, and his duet with Arabella in the second act is winning though the scene goes on too long. Matteo I find rather less interesting.

The staging here could be described as modified traditional. The first act set is divided left and right, the left being the living room of the hotel and the right sometimes the sisters’ bedroom and sometimes the hotel lobby. Also, that space is sometimes occupied by black and white closeups of the scene on the other side. There are also two photographers who wander round the stage taking pictures or filming the action. I don’t see the point of this.

 The second act starts in a more straightforward way, but, about half way through, suddenly starts moving forward in time, with several costume changes for Arabella and changes in the style of dancing. There is a good deal of additional action of no particular significance.

The third act has a prelude evoking Matteo in bed with Zdenka. We get video projections of the two of them, with Matteo wonderingly stroking ‘Zdenko’s’ moustache which in this version she supposedly forgot to remove. (A picture of this scene is on the front of the booklet.) After the confusion arising from Matteo’s not realising that he has been with Zdenka not Arabella, she reappears, but not, as specified in the stage directions, in a nightdress with her hair undone, but again in her male clothes. Matteo accepts her but in this staging he appears pederastic, not an impression that Strauss and Hofmannsthal would have wanted to give.

Of the singers the great disappointment is Sara Jakubiak in the title role. She does not look the part and her voice does not suit the part: her high notes are shrill where they should soar, and she lacks that creamy middle register which was Strauss’s speciality. I much preferred Elena Tsallagova’s Zdenka. She really looks the part, is convincing as a boy, can reach the high notes and can act. The male roles are unrewarding Russell Braun as Mandryka looked dour and unsmiling while Matteo is such a chump that Robert Watson could only make so much of the part. The minor parts are adequately taken. There is whole horde of people who appear only in the second act ball. Runnicles is an old hand at this kind of thing and conducts well, but the balance so favours the voices that the orchestral playing cannot really be appreciated. Otherwise, the sound is fine and there is nothing wrong with the picture, but the staging distorts the work. The director gives an interview in the booklet which purports to explain his decisions.

I found this a disappointing production of a disappointing work. I dare say that with a really first rate cast and possibly some discreet cuts it could be more satisfying. There are several other DVDs available which my colleagues have reviewed: one with Ashley Putnam in the title role under Haitink (review), one with Renée Fleming under Thielemann (review) but the consensus view seems to be that the 1977 one with Gundula Janowitz and Solti conducting is still the one to go for (review).

Stephen Barber

Other performers
Count Elemer – Thomas Blondelle, tenor
Count Dominik – Kyle Miller, baritone
Count Lamoral – Tyler Zimmerman, bass-baritone
Fiakermilli – Hye-Young Moon, soprano
A Fortune Teller – Alexandra Hutton, soprano
Weiko – Jörg Schörner, tenor
Djura – Michael Jamak, actor
Jankel – Robert Hebenstreit, actor
Waiter – Thaisen Rusch, tenor

Production details
Tobias Kratzer, stage director
Rainer Sellmaier, set and costume designer
Clara Hertel, costume designer
Stefan Woinke, lighting designer
Jeroen Verbruggen, choreographer

Video details

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Audio language: German
Subtitles: German, English, French, Japanese, Korean

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