Ariadne auf Lowell

EVERY YEAR Gerry Moshell chooses an opera for the Lowell House Music Society that is far beyond the scope of Harvard instrumentalists and local singers, and every year he manages to bring it off. With a string of three major successes behind him, this year Moshell tempted fate and selected Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, a work demanding an orchestra of virtuosi and a cast capable of tossing off the most treacherous vocal lines without strain. His most outrageous choice, it is his most outrageous success.

Ariadne was Strauss's way of allowing two rival traditions, opera seria and opera buffa, to interact with and define each other's strengths and weaknesses.

The comic prologue (performed in English) consists of recitatives and spoken passages, as a regular opera company skirmishes with a troupe of comedians for possession of the stage. Their battle ends in a draw and each is forced to endure the other's presence on stage during the performance of the sorrows of Ariadne. Strauss uses the vigorous movement and comic music to undercut the idealized romantic opera on which the comedians trespass.

The Lowell production, directed by John Clarke, wisely pays as much attention to acting as to music. Kimberly Daniel, as Zerbinetta, the leader of the comedians, personifies this fusion of dramatic and musical excellence. She manages to be coquettish while singing some of the most difficult coloratura writing in the literature. Her duet with the Composer (Loretta Giles) is the high point of the prologue, doing full justice to what Strauss called one of the finest things he ever wrote.

The rest of the cast supplies the necessary depth to the production, especially in the prologue which demands equal skill in acting and singing. Even more important, the orchestra worked at a consistently intense level of excellence, playing best in the most dangerous, exposed passages. Even the costumes add to the total effect--the beautiful but insipid drapery of Ariadne and her nymphs counterpoints the geometric design of the harlequins' garb.

The only bad thing about Ariadne auf Naxos is that it's the last opera Moshell will produce at Harvard in the forseeable future. He's proved that Harvard has the resources--actors, musicians, and designers--to stage even the most difficult musical event. Let's hope this isn't the last time they all come together.