Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos.(Opera Review)

STRAUSS: Ariadne auf Naxos

Tomowa-Sintow, Gruberova, Schmidt, Vance, Miljakovic, Yachmi; King, Berry, Duesing; Vienna Philharmonic (Salzburg Festival, August 6, 1982), Sawallisch. Notes, synopsis, no libretto. Orfeo 625 042

Perhaps one had to be there. Inveterate Straussians have long raved about Ariadne auf Naxos as performed at the Salzburg Festival of 1982. That was the summer Karl Bohm died, the summer when his classic interpretation of the Strauss--Hofmannsthal masterpiece--essentially soft, spacious, pensive--was supplanted by the more impetuous reading of Wolfgang Sawallisch. Everyone revered the Bohm model, of course, but nearly everyone regarded the Sawallisch alternative--bright, rash, almost brash--as a refreshing change. Some observers argued, moreover, that the younger maestro's perspective better reflected the modernism of Dieter Dorn's then-controversial staging, which pared away a good deal of traditional sentiment and dared to set the prologue in the time of its creation. This belated souvenir comes, alas, as a disappointment.

The recording, based on broadcast tapes, suffers from odd balances and considerable distortion. One wouldn't mind too much, of course, if the music-making were spectacular. It isn't. The cast looks terrific on paper, and, judging by the illustrations in the accompanying booklet, it must have looked terrific in the Kleines ...