Should divine visions of philosophical beauty be cut short by practical things like food or fireworks? Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera of two worlds in collision, and Anthony Negus, conducting the Longborough Orchestra, worked the score’s lightning moodswings and dreamily re-echoed themes into a glittering, believable whole. Stunning central performances by Clare Presland,…
To say that the 2013 Glyndebourne production of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos has received “mixed” reviews would be an understatement. The reviews have, in fact, been terrible. So terrible, that even Glyndebourne could only fish out a 4-star, not a 5-star, review to put on their website, and that only from the august operatic tome…
A new opera creates a certain stir. And there’s a selfconscious ‘we’re here to be brutalised’ atmosphere among the audience: we think we’re tough enough for this, to watch Birtwistle and the beast go head to head in a battle of pain which will cleanse us, civilise us, bring us culture. The production’s central staging…