REVIEW: Arabella, Opera Australia, Melbourne

As posted on Arts Hub By Patricia Maunder. Arabella was first performed in Dresden in 1933, and is the final collaboration between Richard Strauss and his long-time librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Together they endeavoured to recapture Vienna's golden age of the mid-19th century, but their tale is not without little arrows fired at this society's hypocrisies, especially the treatment of women as goods to be bought and sold. In Arabella's Vienna a pure and beautiful woman is highly valuable. Fortunately for her impoverished family, the title character has both virtues in abundance and has attracted several wealthy suitors. Arabella's family is so poor that her younger sister Zdenka must masquerade as a boy, the expense of having two daughters out in society being too great. Happily for Arabella, under pressure to wed, it's love at first sight when a rich Croatian, Mandryka, enters the scene. Of course this superficial mutual attraction must be tested: by a case of mistaken identity involving the cross-dressing Zdenka and one of her sister's suitors. This new Opera Australia production directed by John Cox sticks to the original setting of crinolines and grand balls. While the costumes are unrestrainedly elaborate affairs, the set - disembodied objects of 19th-century conspicuous consumption cast into modernism's blank spaces – nicely holds back from offending 21st-century tastes (though Act Two's ballroom set piece is a hideous work of Old Vienna chocolate box ostentation). The backdrop, a model of Vienna as if viewed from a mountain top, underlines the social commentary inherent in the drama. In a rare appearance together on the Melbourne stage, real-life couple Cheryl Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright play Arabella and Mandryka. Sadly Coleman-Wright sang within his capacity due to a chest infection; nevertheless, the control and depth of his baritone shone through unmistakably. Barker was magnificent, a soprano of the first order whose technical accomplishment underpins a voice of natural beauty and clarity. As Zdenka, Emma Matthews, usually the soprano at the centre of attention, played second fiddle to perfection, and was appropriately at her best in the first act's duet with Barker. These three played their characters well, Barker especially memorable for the shimmering grace and calm of her Arabella. However, while Strauss and Hofmannsthal undoubtedly emphasised her virtuousness, it so dominates this production that complexities and subtleties are underplayed - to the point that minor characters fade away. Gestures toward social commentary are frustratingly restrained, the production seemingly more drawn to Old Vienna's charms than a dangerous liaison with satire. It's never more than a flirtation, when there is potential for more, and consequently the second and third acts spiral into bland, even at times tedious melodrama, with few successful comic moments. Ultimately this production plays Arabella too straight to be satisfying as a piece of theatre. What saves it is the rich, elegant music of Richard Strauss: a lyrical homage to Old Vienna embroidered with echoes of Eastern European folk tunes and a contemporary style – particularly evident in sung-spoken passages – that looks to Weill and Berg. So Orchestra Victoria's nuanced, ardent (a little too ardent at times in Act One) performance under the baton of Lionel Friend, and a principal cast of superlative singers, richly deserved the audience's warm applause. Arabella is sung in German with English surtitles, and is playing at the Arts Centre (Melbourne) until May 9. For bookings, visit www.ticketmaster.com.au.