4.6.2009
The
Karlsruhe production of Hofmannsthal's and Strauss' Ariadne auf
Naxos is very enjoyable: directed with much use of movement and
classiness, each in the appropriate places; with a good orchestra and
cast (both in acting and singing); excellent: Christina Niessen (Ariadne)
and Diana Tomsche (Zerbinetta), who received minutes (!) of spontaneous
applause after her great aria. It was a delightful evening (not just for
me, it seems: there were lots of bravos after the curtain, and on my way
back to the train station I was surrounded by a bunch of returning
theatre-goes, many of whom had smiles on their faces :-)
I'm very fond of Ariadne. It's not just Strauss' beautifully
transparent and elegant neo-classicist music. There is also the ingenious
dramaturgic setup in the extensive Vorspiel, which cleverly
introduces and explains the subsequent opera, and does so in a long
quasi-recitativo, with its own dramatic developments and plenty of
occasions for comedy. And what's more: there is also considerable
depth in the way the ancient theme is treated.
In his conception, I think Hofmannsthal was on to something, a real
insight: If you have suffered a great loss, you are in a grimly
complicated situation. Since what you've lost was so important to you,
you can't quite continue to be yourself — it's a part of your
self that is gone. Neither can you just forget everything that was and
throw yourself into whatever simply keeps your thoughts occupied
(such as traveling, pleasures, or work), because then you would precisely
no longer yourself; with your memories, you'd have abandoned something that
made you into yourself, the person that you were before the loss.
Nor, obviously, can you continue your previous life in any meaningful way:
this is exactly the path that's blocked now. There is no way out of this
dilemma. As Hofmannsthal puts it: "Wer leben will, der muß über
sich selbst hinwegkommen, muß sich verwandeln: er muß vergessen.
Und dennoch ist ans Beharren, ans Nichtvergessen, an die Treue alle
menschliche Würde geknüpft. Dies ist einer von den abgrundtiefen
Widersprüchen, über denen das Dasein aufgebaut ist". The only
attitude that actually works is paradoxical: don't forget the tiniest bit,
keep being yourself, and trust that what you've lost will be restored
somehow. (It can't, of course; but paradoxically, it will.) It's an
attitude that is brilliantly expressed in Ariadne's refusal to follow
all the suggestions put forward to her. (As an aside: one might wonder
whether the character of Bacchus succeeds to equally express something
meaningful; I admit I cannot really make sense of anything he has to say
in his part.)
