Review: A Soprano’s Voice Carries Met in ‘Ariadne’


“Did you see ‘Ariadne’ last night?” A friend wrote to me on Wednesday. “If you’ve been in Brooklyn, you might still have heard of it.”

I had I saw him and immediately realized that by “he” he meant “him”: soprano Lise Davidsenas the lead character of Kim Strauss “Ariadne auf Naxos” He filled the mighty Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday in a way few singers could.

Flooding across her spectrum, from shimmering, solar-powered high notes to deep-seated depths, Davidsen offered an almost supernatural spin on a role outside of Greek myth. The sparkling, shimmering, always very light metallic tones that make his voice sound strikingly powerful and sincere. You feel it almost as a physical presence – pressing against your chest, lifting the hairs on your nape. Given Strauss’s reduction of his orchestra in “Ariadne” to chamber size, this is the rare occasion when the woman on stage has a voice at the top where the powers in the pit are greater than theirs.

One of the brilliant ideas of this composer and librettoist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was largely to spare the leading lady in a behind-the-scenes prologue that portrays her as an unnamed Prima Donna participating in the preparations of a nobleman’s evening entertainment. Things get chaotic when the news hits: Due to time constraints, the bleak drama she will play will not be back-to-back, but with an ensemble of clowns all at once. A clash – and unity – of joy and sublimity ensues.

The release of an Ariadne in opera is always a thrill as it has been so temptingly delayed—even more so with Davidsen, 35, a soft-spoken, witty, even brash presence in the prologue, who suddenly takes on a queen-like appearance. fills and overflows. With this role that rose to international fame a few years ago, she comes off as timeless without losing her youth, penetrating even a more sincere voice than a full-blown scream.

Conductor Marek Janowski also charted the transition from a lively sound in the introduction to a softer, more majestic sound that moves with agile energy throughout. Baritone Johannes Martin Kränzle was a Music Master with strong character; mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard is a sensitive, artfully interpreting Composer.

Too bad soprano Brenda Rae made less of an impression as Zerbinetta, the ringleader of the clowns. Rae plays with fascinating vitality, and the role – a sort of Straussian Ado Annie – suits her better than Handel’s Poppea. “Agrippina” at the Met in 2020. But his voice still sounded pale. Zerbinetta’s quick-witted coloratura should hold its own alongside Ariadne’s broad majesty, a task that’s admittedly next to impossible on Tuesday.

The next evening, when another soprano, Aleksandra Kurzak, gave a more modest performance, Davidsen’s voice still seemed to ring in the theater. Puccini’s Tosca.

Playful and playful in the first act, Kurzak found that his instrument had pushed its limits and overstepped its bounds in the high-end murderous drama of the second act. Her real-life husband, tenor Roberto Alagna, looked sometimes fresh and sometimes weathered as Tosca’s passionate lover, Cavaradossi. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of The Met, exaggerated the tone of the music while bringing out the stunning details from start to finish – in a way that was a little too rhapsodic as the momentum continued to slow.

This “Tosca” was an entertaining, albeit flawed, opera. Thanks to Davidsen, “Ariadne” was a reenactment of all that opera can do to us and our bodies, how helplessly we can be enslaved by the human voice.

It was already exciting at Davidsen Met in Tchaikovsky’s. “The Queen of Spades” and Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.” But her singing is so lavish in its scale that it can sink even semi-realistic intrigues. It seems ideal for the more legendary works of Wagner and flourishes in the flamboyant stylization of Ariadne; here is a role that Davidsen was truly born into.

Ariadne auf Naxos

At the Manhattan Metropolitan Opera until March 17. And “Tosca” continues there until March 12; meopera.org.



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