Sitting between Rosenkavalier and Die Frau ohne Schatten, this opera partakes of both – a glamorous Viennese salon setting for the Prologue, and a shift into a world of highly symbolic mythology in the one-act opera that follows. Along the way, it is a profound meditation on the nature of opera and how it should be made, in which Strauss and Hofmannstahl reflect on the lessons of their unique collaboration. This is a huge amount to juggle, and many productions fall short – inevitably – on one or another aspect. It is the great triumph of Laurent Pelly’s second pass through this work that all three elements are given equal weight and proper embodiment.
If I begin with the set that is no faint praise. At the outset there is a graceful flexibility about it that compels admiration: a magnificent slab of a Rococo doorway is rotated alongside and contrasted with a curved minimalist wall in striped pattern which the lighting design riffs off delectably as the act progresses. The same features recur in the second half, but with the addition of a large lump of rock on the forestage to represent the desolate island of Naxos: Ariadne’s scene of isolation is still linked to the decorous home of ‘the richest man in Vienna.’ It is symbolic and functional at one and the same time, fulfilling Pelly’s stated desire in a recent interview to have an uncluttered production where less is more.
The Prologue is a masterly piece of writing, the operatic equivalent of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. Backstage hissy-fits and pratfalls fly by in a whirl of activity and stage business. But the direction also finds enough time for the serious matters of how comedy and tragedy, seria and buffa can be blended to mutual advantage. The encounter between Zerbinetta and the Composer that leads into the celebration of music as ‘a holy art’ is beautifully achieved by all concerned, in itself a demonstration of what composer, librettist, conductor, singer, designer, and lighting team can achieve on stage.
The same skilful synergy flows into the opera itself. In the wrong hands there can be flat patches dramatically, where the burden of imitating Wagnerian conventions weighs heavy. But here everything is achieved with the lightest of touches. There is a fine chemistry between Alina Wunderlin’s superlative Zerbinetta and her troupe of comedians, all excellent actors as well as singers. The trio of Naiad, Dryad and Echo offer sprightly, exceptionally melodious commentary; and Rachel Willis-Sorensen’s account of ‘Es gibt ein Reich’ is a persuasively enacted anticipation of death. Above all the production makes compelling sense of the last twenty minutes of the work. Getting to the final love duet can be hard work, but here each stage is persuasively managed, and the pay-off at the end, with a remarkable transformation of the set, matches the transfiguration in the music. This success was reflected in the exceptional enthusiasm of the audience’s reception, many of whom, like myself, will not have seen this ending so persuasively achieved hitherto.
There are exceptional demands placed on some of the singers, and I could find no fault here. Samantha Hankey found just the right balance between the composer’s frustrated perfectionism and the rapture of his ambition, though I did wonder at the decision to have him back as a spectator to the opera in the second half. Willis-Sorensen shifted plausibly from petulant prima donna in the prologue through to first self-absorbed melancholy, and then final enraptured revelation. Wunderlin gave a show-stopping rendition of her second-act aria, and David Butt Philip blended sensitivity with heldentenor heft as Bacchus.
In the pit Robin Ticciati made his reduced orchestra of 36 players sound a much larger force at the points where the orchestra becomes the main voice, but otherwise scaled things back convincingly to chamber music levels to support the voices. Performers, designers and creative team never got in the way of realising what is one of the operatic canon’s deftest collaborations. Such a wordy, self-referential text, and the juxtaposition of so many different musical styles, should not, on the face of it, succeed. Yet it does, miraculously so; but only when the production itself demonstrates the truth of the lessons presented within.
Music: Richard Strauss
Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannstahl
Director: Laurent Pelly
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Robin Ticciati
Cast includes: David Butt Philip, Samantha Hankey, Michael Kraus, William Relton, Mikhail Timoshenko, Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Alina Wunderlin
Until 29 August 2026
3 hrs 35 minutes with dining interval
Photo Credit: Tristram Kenton