Arabella

Sydney has a building that is the envy of opera companies around the world, and the cast sheet from the latest production inside should make them covet the podium as well. Music director and conductor Richard Hickox made the connoisseur’s choice for everything. Richard Strauss requires audiences to listen carefully for leitmotifs rather than hum along with arias; his dark romantic comedy Arabella (1932) is nowhere near as popular as his Salome or Der Rosenkavalier (1911), but the orchestration is rewarding and rich, greatly expanding the emotional boundaries of Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s plot, which, on paper, looks like a simple period farce about a beautiful, idealistic woman with many rich suitors.

Director John Cox’s decades at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden show: every movement seems naturally cued by a relevant sound from the orchestra, as if George Lucas had to film Star Wars starting with a score by John Williams. The coordination continues into the set design (by his long-time collaborator Robert Perdziola); like a fine wristwatch, everything looks naturally beautiful, moves perfectly, and no part proves unnecessary. A crooked staircase turns straight in the end, just as the scandalous story is resolved happily. Several characters revolve around Arabella, and every one of them is done well. Emma Matthews particularly impresses with both voice and acting in the implausible pants role of the sister, who lures Arabella’s suitor into her darkened bedroom on false pretenses. The orchestra alone gives details of the sex scene that follows.

Cheryl Barker handles every bar of her prima donna role with fitting skill, but it is in her two love duets with Peter Coleman-Wright – one before their breach of trust and one after – that she is most moving. Transported by this glorious music, some listeners may reflect that the singers are married in real life, or that Strauss married his leading soprano, (surprisingly happily), or that Tristan und Isolde was his forbidden fruit, or simply that love, and its depiction in art, is fragile and precious.

Opera Australia’s summer season has delivered a contrasting pair of comedies about fairytale heroines: the familiar Italian Cinderella that most everyone would love, and the unusual German Arabella, that opera lovers will love most. 

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