Much more than a Fiakerball on Faschingsdienstag, the Arabella currently being produced at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is an exposé of transformations – whether caused/facilitated or undergone. The theme is not new in Strauss/Hofmmansthal’s work (Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten); the difference in Tobias Kratzer’s staging is the relief it takes: the metamorphosis takes place at a glance, whatever the period – in the first act, the action is set in 1860; in the second, we leap from the second half of the 19th century to the 1920s, then on to the 1960s, …, and end up in the 20th century. The aim of moving the action in time? To introduce an unexpected (but oh-so-logical) catalyst, so that the consequences of the moult on the characters’ behaviour are all the stronger.
Having said that, let’s forget about the clichés built up and perpetuated around the characters by the historical (and much-loved) interpretations of Lisa della Casa, Kiri Te Kanawa and many others… Jennifer Davis’s Arabella is a young girl of 18 who, as she becomes a woman at the end of the opera – we follow her highly credible experiences as she leaves her late teens and enters early adulthood – preserves all the freshness and liveliness she displayed from her first appearance – which we find in the tireless, radiant and amber voice of this soprano who made her debut in the role on 6th March.
A reversal, too, in the perspective we had on the relationships between certain characters; we tend, rightly or wrongly, to infantilise Zdenka vis-à-vis her sister: no way here, and we understand it perfectly, thanks, partly, to the fiercely committed performance of Heidi Stober, who enriches the character psychologically and conveys the depth she gives her with a thousand and one vocal nuances performed marvellously (despite a recent physical ailment), and partly to the evolution of the narrative. Born a girl but always dressed as a man, an enfant terrible according to her mother, she asserts her masculine nature right up to the end, and remains so, living out her love for Daniel O’Hearn‘s emphatic and greedy Matteo to the full.
Even Thomas Johannes Mayer’s Mandryka suffers the effects of this inescapable transformation, albeit in a more subdued way: the moderately savage (rather a natural authority than a primitive force), somewhat unearthly, slightly monochromatic vigour that he exudes remains present, but wrapped up in an allure as refined as the meticulous care that the baritone brings to each of his interventions; we can easily do without the subtitles, intelligibility assured even at the end of Act 2 when he begins his feverish recitative with Halt! Du irgendeiner oder wer du bist! without faltering at any moment.
With Adelaide and Graf Waldner, the transformations are more subtle: the drama of the former’s foreboding of the worst for herself and her family (how excessively the exceptional Doris Soffel spreads this exalted tone, with all her Das gebe Gott!, Heil’ge Mutter Gottes!, …) and the more or less insouciant and awkward bonhomie, with a charm that is more Prussian than Viennese, of the second (Albert Pesendorfer).
The same applies to Arabella’s excellent suitors: Gerard Farreras’s Graf Lamoral, Kyle Miller’s luminous Graf Dominik and the excellent Thomas Cilluffo’s Graf Elemer (who sounds like a true Viennese straight out of the glory years of the Habsburg empire, with, despite the grandiloquence of his performances, all the lightness and freshness that the role requires). Let’s not forget the delight of hearing Hye-Young Moon’s Fiakermilli: with such petulance and panache she sings her fabulous Die Wiener Herrn verstehn sich auf die Astronomie! Undoubtedly the sunniest and funniest moment of the evening.
The only element of this fresco that doesn’t seem to be affected by the changes dictated by the staging? The orchestra, always excellent, under the direction (the aegis!) of Sir Donald Runnicles, whose talent for highlighting the countless details that abound in the Straussian score (the waltzes, the folkloric inspirations, the parallels with the leitmotive of the Rosenkavalier…) never ceases to impress.
Casting: Graf Waldner (Albert Pesendorfer), Adelaide (Doris Soffel), Arabella (Jennifer Davis), Zdenka (Heidi Stober), Mandryka (Thomas Johannes Mayer), Matteo (Daniel O’Hearn), Graf Elemer (Thomas Cilluffo), Graf Dominik (Kyle Miller), Graf Lamoral (Gerard Farreras), Fiakermilli (Hye-Young Moon), Eine Kartenaufschlägerin (Martina Baroni), Welko (Jörg Schörner), Djura (Michael Jamak), Jankel (Robert Hebenstreit), Ein Zimmerkellner (Heiner Boßmeyer). Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin. Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin.
(For further informations) Link to the Deutsche Oper Berlin website: ARABELLA (2025 production) – Deutsche Oper Berlin
