Product Details
Title: Ariadne Auf Naxos (Blu-Ray)
Composer: Richard Strauss
Artist: Michael Volle, Michelle Breedt, Roberto Sacca, Elena Mosuc, Emily Magee, Gabriel Bermudez, Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House, Christoph Von Dohnanyi (conductor), Claus Guth (director), Christian Schmidt (design)
Label: TDK

Product Description

Set and Costumes Design by Christian Schmidt

In a series of groundbreaking productions from Opera Zurich, TDK presents a production of Ariadne auf Naxos, one of many beautifully crafted operas created by Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. In the compelling production recorded on this Blu-Ray, Christoph von Dohnány leads a particularly strong cast of singer-actors in a thrilling interpretation of the work. Ariadne is sung by the American soprano Emily Magee, who has received worldwide praise for her performances in works by both Wagner and Strauss. The German-born Italian tenor Roberto Saccà, who is now regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of his generation, takes the part of Bacchus Both made their role débuts under Christoph von Dohnányi's subtle yet sensual leadership, and both were acclaimed for their vocal radiance, subtle handling of the text and the care that they lavished on the technical aspects of their parts. Exploring the essence of the piece, the director Claus Guth and his designer Christian Schmidt worked with the binary opposites that are posited on every level of the work and that seem to be so clear-cut: on the one hand, there is the reality of the prologue and, on the other, the artifi ciality of the opera. In this production, curtains symbolizing the theatre provide the mere undecorated space within which the prologue is acted out. The protagonists are in a state of suspension, not yet having laid aside their old personalities and not yet having assumed the new roles assigned to them. Conversely, the artistic character of the opera itself is explored, revealing within this uniquely artifi cial construct the most profound of human truths, that the antinomies of life and art, being and appearance, fi delity and infi delity, deathly paralysis and living transformation are artificial and are in fact more interconnected than they seem. An entertaining and intelligently crafted production of one of the key operas exploring the intertextuality that occurs between “real life” and what today would be called “virtual reality”.

这部两幕喜歌剧或许要算歌剧史上最精致、巧妙的剧作。首先，它是个“戏串戏”，即“序幕”所展现18世纪维特纳上流社会的一场奢华晚宴，和接下来所演“歌剧”的取自希腊神话的剧情。这场晚宴的吃喝占了太多时间，于是主人不得不把原定两台戏的演出并为一台，即严肃的《阿里阿德涅在纳克索斯》与办杂耍的意大利喜剧《不忠的萨宾娜塔》合二为一，因为演出之后还要放焰火。

第二幕的“歌剧”就这样开始了：阿里阿德涅公主被爱人提休斯遗弃于纳克索斯岛，伤心欲绝，唱出带有自杀意念的《死之王国》。忽然间，一群演杂耍戏剧的小丑涌上舞台，企图逗阿里阿德涅开心。而萨宾娜塔，那位以频繁地更换男人来及时行乐的喜剧女主角，则唱起一曲动人的《显赫的公主》，要阿里阿德涅想开点，要紧是抓握住下一个男人。她问道：“既然上帝创造了这么多男人，他怎么还能要求女人保持贞洁？”剧终前萨宾娜塔不无得意地宣称，阿里阿德涅已经有了新男人，证明她的哲学有理。

无论从什么角度，从人文思想、戏剧结构还是音乐，《阿里阿德涅在纳克索斯》都经得起挑剔，堪称20世纪歌剧经典。