Arabella (R Strauss)

[cahn]

OK I saw the Fleming-Hampson Arabella and I have so many feelings about it.

First, we have the following items:
-One tenor (Matteo) who is going around... being... a tenor
-One overreacting baritone (Mandryka), confronted with misleading though convincing evidence of soprano betrayal
-One mezzo (Zdenka/Zdenko) who is cross-dressing and complicating everything
-One utterly blameless soprano (Arabella) who nevertheless is not very pleased by everyone else going crazy around her and eventually gives up on trying to explain, especially since she doesn't actually know at this point what's going on
-One bass (Waldner) who is having some family HONOR issues as a result of all of this
-Some swords and/or pistols that make a convenient appearance at this point in the plot (it's not actually clear to me whether it's both?)

Basically speaking, all the ingredients for a Verdian level of tragedy.

And then --

Well -- seekingferret will also laugh that I have managed to take this epic romance opera and turn it into a family drama in my head -- I finished watching this and although the romance was nice and I liked it much more than I usually like romance, I was completely bowled over by the SISTERS.

Because what happens THEN is that Zdenka, Arabella's sister, rushes in because she has to say goodbye to Arabella before she kills herself for ruining Arabella's marriage prospects (to the baritone! which can I say I totally appreciate, the baritone should always get the girl because the baritone is always more interesting than the tenor). And Arabella, who has quite a lot on her mind at the time -- the very real possibility her future and her romantic prospects for love (in particular, a romantic match that is both supremely satisfying and financially workable) have been entirely ruined by the events of that night -- responds immediately by saying, look, stay here with me, whatever has happened, I'll still love you. I CAN'T EVEN. YES ALL OF THIS PLEASE.

And it's because of this -- not because of any of the romantic shenanigans, which have just complicated matters up to this point, but because of this bond between these sisters who love each other in a profound and complex way, that everything is allowed to be made clear, and the whole story unwinds itself, and everything works out in the end.

(Well, kind of clear, at least to the characters. Honestly, if I hadn't read a synopsis beforehand I would have been totally unclear as to everything that was going on in that last act.)

Basically, I love all of this. I love the inverting of the usual opera plot, to make what is clearly a tragedy into a happy ending. I love using usual opera characterization to perform inversions -- have I mentioned that Matteo totally acts like a tenor and gets very little sympathy about it from the narrative? And the mezzo crossdressing is treated perfectly seriously by the narrative. (seekingferret, you might be interested to know that in this production Zdenko's line "I will be a man forever!" is not treated as a proud declaration but as a cry of despair -- this Zdenko doesn't want to be Zdenko.)

This production is... a little weird? Some of it is rather lovely -- I liked the set design (though I am informed by zdenka, ha, it's odd to type that, that there should have been stairs and there are no stairs). It's not regie exactly (except for the chorus, who are treated somewhat oddly and are generally sort of milling around, possibly as nightmare figments of Mandryka's own imagination?) but it makes some weird choices, like Zdenka suddenly revealing herself by dramatically taking her coat off to reveal that she's wearing only her breast bindings and slacks underneath, which is a very strange choice, although I have become reconciled to it by imagining that Matteo took her shirt and she couldn't fit into his, hee. But I can't imagine that was the intent.

But Hampson as Mandryka is brilliant (though this may be the only opera I've watched with Hampson where I admired him and liked Mandryka quite a bit but didn't fall totally in love with the character, possibly because Mandryka does get a happy ending) and Fleming and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Arabella and Zdenko/Zdenka are just gorgeous, and I thought it was worth watching for that.

Judging by this, I like R. Strauss quite a bit (sorry carmarthen), although I would like to listen to this with much thinner voices, sort of like all my Britten recordings, because I felt that there were lots of places where my brain couldn't figure out what Strauss was trying to do because I wasn't sure of the singer's pitch because vibrato augh, and it bothered me. (I am currently listening to the Decca ROH recording on Spotify with Kiri te Kanawa, and so far I am liking it a lot better, musically speaking.)

Comments

[seekingferret]

No, Arabella definitely has great family drama, I'm not surprised that you saw it and was all SISTERS because that's definitely a central part of why it's so great. For me, the thing is that I almost always hate operatic romance and I was utterly befuddled by the fact that I don't hate this romance. But certainly the whole Waldner family story is fantastic.

I do disagree that Arabella is totally blameless. She's a pretty charming person, but I do think the libretto takes pains to show she has flaws, that she can be selfish and thinks about herself first and needs to learn how to take other peoples' needs into account.

That's interesting that this Zdenko doesn't like being Zdenko. I feel like that ought to make the suspense a little less compelling because then... what's keeping Zdenko from just unmasking to Matteo? Just the dowry stuff? The fact that they're uncertain how Matteo would react? I'm not sure it feels like enough without the complicated gender stuff.


But yay I'm glad you liked it and glad you liked your first experience with Strauss, he is so great.

[cahn]

I really love the romances! (And you know that I also am not particularly taken by opera romance.) Mandryka is so over-the-top and I hope and think that he and Arabella will be very happy together :D I worry a lot more about Zdenka and Matteo, but I think it's possible that if Matteo gets over himself (which this production, at least, made it seem likely) they could work out too.

I agree that Arabella isn't perfect (also what a perfect response to Zdenka that her sister has taught her about being more selfless, <333333), but she sure is totally blameless of what Mandryka is accusing her of :)

Hm. At the time I figured it was fear that Matteo would turn away from her (I don't know if this is in the libretto, now I don't remember that anywhere, but I definitely got it somehow from the acting) coupled with the dowry stuff -- which seemed like enough to me because everything else was so over-the-top. (I mean... pretending your daughter is a boy because you don't want to pay for another dowry... this is not exactly a plan that makes a whole lot of sense as it is.)

Anyway, I am definitely wanting to check out more Strauss now :)

[seekingferret]

My favorite Strauss is Der Rosenkavalier, which is a 20th century remix of Le Nozze di Figaro, with the Cherubino and Figaro roles blended into one character, and it's as awesome as that sounds. I also recommend Salome, Intermezzo, Capriccio, and... well, I loved Ariadne auf Naxos myself, but I am very, very into genre-bending, so that's unsurprising. My not-so-opera-savvy friend who came along didn't like it at all.

[cahn]

Well, I might like Ariadne now that I know a little more about the genres it's bending :P :) I will put it on the list *examines list with dismay at how long it is* and report back :)

(This weekend I watched Pelleas, which I need to write up, and I really loved it even though it's about a love triangle which I normally really hate. Possibly because it's a really odd and ambiguous love triangle.)

[carmarthen]

ARGH, see, this plot summary sounds great! (But so did the summary of Ariadne auf Naxos...I just got burned so hard on that one, haha.)

I suspect the relative lack of badly conceived regie would help, though. I shouldn't blame that on R. Strauss.

[cahn]

I bet the terrible regie was a large part of it -- it sounds all kinds of bonkers. At some point I'll find a NON-REGIE version of Ariadne auf Naxos and try it out :)

[carmarthen]

Yes, please report if you do find one.

[alcanis_ivennil]

So this is essentially what would happen if Wolfie took a Verdi plot and went: ok how about nobody kills anybody and all ends well?

Now I wish to see what would have happened to Nozze if the plot adapted itself to Verdian tropes. Almaviva would probably go on a murder spree and stab Cherubino then decide to kill Susanna if he can't have her but accidentally stab the Countess (because the costume switch still happens) after which there is a dramatic death scene that goes on for 10 minutes where he's like "oh no what have I done" and the Countess is like "I still forgive you because I love you, moron". And then he probably kills himself (cue another 4-5 minutes of aria).

[cahn]

YES YES IT IS

Heh, yep yep, that is exactly what would happen if Verdi wrote Nozze :P

Also, if Verdi wrote Clemenza: it would be Don Carlo. :P :)

[alcanis_ivennil]

I love when a soprano knows the baritone is hotter than the tenor :D (I'm still not over that Trovatore last year where di Luna was the most photogenic hottie I have ever seen and the Manrico, well... I have seen better looking whales.)

The smartest soprano is clearly Tatiana, however, who gets herself a nice, loving bass who respects her and will happily rant about how awesome his wife is.

[cahn]

I am really excited about the soprano picking the baritone, no lie :D

Tatiana needs to get over Onegin, tbh. Come on, Gremin is awesome! (Did you see that someone wrote Pushkin verse about it?? Coaching the Pumpkin SO GREAT)

[alcanis_ivennil]

Baritones tend to be hopeless. Just watched Thais the other day, and dumbass baritone takes forever to realize he's horny on main, and by the time he does she's dying XD Typical.

[cahn]

THAIS! Did you watch the one with Hampson and Fleming and Schade? I love it (although as a former violinist I have a bit of a kneejerk reaction to the main theme). Did you liveblog it? Man, you're right, though, baritones are so hopeless. (In _Arabella_ too! Fortunately the mezzo and soprano carry the day.)

[alcanis_ivennil]

http://count-di-luna.tumblr.com/post/183690009131/thais-liveblog-met

Yeah! It's very good. Also wow Fleming is so radiant. And Hampson is ridiculously hot. Schade is excellent, he's also the only singer I know who managed to make Don Ottavio not boring. Can the Met get him to sing Captain Vere already? He would be great.

[cahn]

It is So good!! Schade is really great. I mean, Nicias is a pretty awesome character regardless (I thought it was hilarious that the tenor... actually does get the girl, and the baritone doesn't, but not really... come on, baritone, why always make life decisions that means you don't get laid?) but Schade is so good. I also once listened to an enormous number of (audio) Zauberflotes and Schade was my favorite Tamino <3 YES PLEASE Schade for Vere!!

And of course you know how I feel about Hampson. Man I would watch him do anything. He is indeed ridiculously hot. Fleming is so gorgeous, she makes Thais totally believable to me.

[alcanis_ivennil]

Also, have you seen the new ROH Forza?

http://operaportugues.tumblr.com/post/183925945520/la-forza-del-destino-verdi-roh-02abril2019

You will probably need to get a player that can handle this format. VLC can't. Windows Media Player worked for me but there are also others (or you can convert them to mp4).

Pappano felt the need to say the tenor/baritone duets are "not love duets", but Jonas and Ludovic were like "oh my sweet summer child" XD

[cahn]

omg no I didn't evne know it was around THANK YOU!! I will look for this as soon as I get home from work.

Huh, I thought VLC handled everything! Thanks for the heads up.

[alcanis_ivennil]

Yeah, me on the rare occasion VLC can't play something: "this format isn't even real".

I mean, VLC could probably run even Skyrim.