Richard Strauss:
- Ariadne auf Naxos
This DVD was filmed live in German resort town of Baden-Baden by the veteran director Brian Large. Renée Fleming makes her debut in the role of Ariadne together with fellow key Strauss interpreters Sophie Koch and Christian Thielemann, following on from their triumph in Strauss’ Rosenkavalier.
Performed by Renée Fleming (Ariadne/Prima Donna), Robert Dean Smith (Bacchus/The Tenor), Sophie Koch (Komponist), Jane Archibald (Zerbinetta), with the Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Christian Thielemann
Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden, the orchestra to whom Strauss dedicated his Alpine Symphony, and which also premiered Feuersnot, Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier and Daphne.
Renee Fleming achieved a great personal triumph in this production, and the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote the following:
“The chief glory of the evening was hearing Renée Fleming, the Straussian soprano par excellence, making her role debut as Ariadne… As the possessor of what is, possibly, the most beautiful soprano voice in the world, she put her vocal treasures in the service of an empathic, nuanced interpretation of the role. From the creamy top, through a rich, warm middle, to the bewitching, darker colors of her lower register, Fleming poured her magnificent sound into Strauss’s enchanting melodic arcs, animating the sadness, vulnerability, and desire of the bereft princess…”
After the above, what more could I add?
Here is Renée Fleming’s amazing singing in Ariadne auf Naxos (What a voice!!):
http://youtu.be/OoX4TNtWx6c
And next, here she is with Robert Dean Smithin in another brief scene from Ariadne Auf Naxos by Strauss :
Tags: Richard Strauss, Renee Fleming, Ariadne auf Naxos