R Strauss
Arabella
Sara Jakubiak, Elena Tsallagova et al; Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin/Donald Runnicles; dir. Tobias Kratzer (Berlin 2023)
Naxos DVD: 2.110774; Blu-ray: NBD0182V 160 mins
Tobias Kratzer’s Berlin Arabella, part of a Strauss triptych, has made me think long and hard about the paradoxes and contrary pulls of the composer and his ‘house poet’ Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and it ends up deeply moving, too.
We start in 1860s Vienna and the impecunious Waldners living beyond their means. Camera operators stalk the split stage, sometimes projecting black and white period detail: an irritant, though the singing-acting of the cast is excellent.
Act 2 enthrals: for Strauss’s messy Viennese carnival ball, composed after the writer’s death, Kratzer shows a corridor outside the dance-hall as time tunnel, moving through 1920s Austria, with Nazis briefly arresting members of a cabaret troupe, and to the ’60s and eventually the present day.
- Wilhelm Fürthwangler – darling of the Nazi Party, or secret opponent
- Herbert von Karajan – godlike conductor and Nazi opportunist...
It’s a good metaphor for our determined heroine transcending social restraints and toxic masculinity which aren’t resolved until halfway through an equally perceptively staged third act. Sara Jakubiak is more a dramatic than lyric soprano, but phrases gloriously; she’s well matched with Russell Braun’s ardent baritone as a Mr Right from a far Austrian province who learns through suffering. Elena Tsallagova pulses with emotion, too, as the cross-dressing sister; only Robert Watson’s pushy and unstable Matteo acts less well than he sings.
The momentum is brilliantly maintained by Donald Runnicles, with no lingering for the set pieces. The final action is a funny, touching water fight. Let’s have the other two operas on DVD too, please. David Nice
