Is Ariadne waiting for death, or for another lover?

Leonie Rysanek as Ariadne

From part 2 of the abandoned Ariadne's monologue, as she awaits the messenger of death:

ARIADNE: But soon a messenger will draw nigh,
Hermes they call him.
With his staff
he rules all souls:
Like birds on the wing,
like dry leaves,
he drives them before him.
Thou beautiful, serene god!
See! Ariadne awaits!

Leonie Rysanek (s), Ariadne; Vienna Philharmonic, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA-Decca, recorded 1958

Christa Ludwig (s), Ariadne; Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Böhm, cond. Live perfomance from the Salzburg Festival, July 26, 1964

From the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos, in which the Composer and Zerbinetta take different views of Ariadne's "death":

COMPOSER: She is one of those women who belong to one man only in their life and after that to no one else --
ZERBINETTA: Ha!
COMPOSER: -- to no one else, save Death!

COMPOSER: She takes him for the god of Death. In her eyes, in her soul, he is Death, and for that reason, for that reason only --
ZERBINETTA [from the door, very gently]: That's what she'd have you think
COMPOSER: -- for that reason only she goes with him on his ship.

COMPOSER: Ariadne is the one out of a million. She is the woman who does not forget.
ZERBINETTA: Childishness!

Sena Jurinac (s), Composer; Roberta Peters (s), Zerbinetta; Vienna Philharmonic, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA-Decca, recorded 1958

by Ken

We've already heard the tiny bit above from part 2 ("Es gibt ein Reich") of Ariadne's monologue, as she awaits the messenger who will take her to the realm "where everything is pure" -- the realm of death. (See the November 1 post "Why won't everyone just let poor abandoned Ariadne die in peace?" and the December 13 post "Ariadne is "the symbol of human solitude" -- which is "just why she needs company" (says the Dance Master).") And I'll say even more strongly than before that this 49 seconds of Leonie Rysanek's recording is some of the most thrillingly beautiful singing I've heard.

Now we've added the above tiny bits of the Prologue, containing some more of the most thrillingly beautiful singing I've heard -- from, you'l notice, the very same recording of Ariadne auf Naxos, as Sena Jurinac as the Composer of the opera seria expresses her understanding of the title character.


"THE WOMAN WHO DOES NOT FORGET"

I keep saying that Sena Jurinac's Composer is one of the greatest recordings of an operatic role I know, and while we've heard a lot of other excerpts, I'm hoping that the really searing quality of the above snippets may drive the point home. But we should probably hear them in slightly fuller context.

After our Così fan tutte detour ("Ariadne and Fiordiligi: Real people and feelings vs. ideas about people and feelings," December 20, and "We continue our detour through "Così fan tutte" on the road back to poor Ariadne, abandoned -- only now with company! -- on the isle of Naxos," December 27), we're back in the Prologue, which composer Strauss and librettist Hofmannsthal added to make a free-standing work of the original Ariadne, their weird composite of stately opera seria and commedia dell'arte hi jinx, composed as an intermezzo for Molière's Bourgeois gentilhomme. Now we're "backstage" in the home of "the richest man in Vienna" during final preparations for the premiere of a pair of entertainments, one in each of the aforementioned genres, commissioned by Herr Moneybags for his personal edification.

As we pick up, the assorted performers are struggling desperately to adjust on the fly to the edict just delivered by the great man's officious Major-Domo: that the two entertainments are to be performed simultaneously, and not take up more time than either separately. The young Composer, who was appalled enough to learn that his new opera would be sharing a bill with the comedy stylings of Zerbinetta and her quartet of commedia dell'arte colleagues, is . . . well, galaxies beyond appalled. And even as he tries to deal with the need to make drastic cuts in his masterpiece, abetted by his teacher, the Music Master, he can't help overhear the parallel planning of the comedians under the oversight of the Dance Master.

The Composer defends the heroine of his opera against the slurs of the comedians

DANCE MASTER [to ZERBINETTA, very happy and spirited]: This Ariadne is a king's daughter. She has eloped with a certain Theseus, whose life she had previously saved.
ZERBINETTA: Such things seldom turn out well.
DANCE MASTER: Theseus grows tired of her and leaves her behnd by night on a desert island.
MUSIC MASTER [to the COMPOSER]: This too must come out!
ZERBINETTA [understandingly]: The young scoundrel!
DANCE MASTER: She languishes in passionate longing and prays for death.
ZERBINETTA: Death? That's what they say. Of course, she means another lover.
DANCE MASTER: Of course that's how it turns out!
COMPOSER [having overheard, comes closer]: No sir, it doesn't. Because, sir, she is one of those women who belong to one man only in their life and after that to no one else --
ZERBINETTA: Ha!
COMPOSER: -- to no one else, save Death!
ZERBINETTA: But death doesn't come, however. Quite the contrary, I wager. Perhaps even a pale, dark-eyed lad, someone like you.
MUSIC MASTER: You have guessed it quite right. It is the young god Bacchus who comes to her!
ZERBINETTA [merrily, mockingly]: As if one didn't know that! So for the moment she gets what she wants.
COMPOSER: She takes him for the god of Death. In her eyes, in her soul, he is Death, and for that reason, for that reason only --
ZERBINETTA [from the door, very gently]: That's what she'd have you think
COMPOSER:  -- for that reason only she goes with him on his ship. She believes she is going to die? No! She really dies!
ZERBINETTA [while she slips something on]: Tut, tut! Are you trying to teach me what my own kind is like?
COMPOSER  [darkly]: She's not your kind!
[Shouting] I know it, that she dies!
[Softly] Ariadne is the one out of a million. She is the woman who does not forget.
ZERBINETTA: Childishness!

-- English translation mostly by Peggie Cochrane

Murray Dickie (t), Dance Master; Roberta Peters (s), Zerbinetta; Walter Berry (bs-b), Music Master; Sena Jurinac (s), Composer; Vienna Philharmonic, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA-Decca, recorded 1958

Gerhard Unger (t), Dance Master; Jeanette Scovotti (s), Zerbinetta; Paul Schoeffler (bs-b), Music Master; Tatiana Troyanos (ms), Composer; Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Nov. 29,1967

Martin Finke (t), Dance Master; Edita Gruberová (s), Zerbinetta; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Music Master; Julia Varady (s), Composer; Gewandhaus Orchestra (Leipzig), Kurt Masur, cond. Philips, recorded January 1988

Peter Schreier (t), Dance Master; Sylvia Geszty (s), Zerbinetta; Theo Adam (bs-b), Music Master; Teresa Zylis-Gara (s), Composer; Staatskapelle Dresden, Rudolf Kempe, cond. EMI, recorded June-July 1968


"LIKE A GOD EACH ONE CAME"

I hope the titles of the two Così posts will suggest where we're headed in assessing the competing views of the two parties on Ariadne's fate. For now we're going to jump back to the Opera proper of Ariadne, specifically to the showpiece scene Hofmannsthal and Strauss created for Zerbinetta to make her fullest-frontal attempt to bring Ariadne to her senses. It was even longer and showier in the original 1912 Ariadne, but it's still a pretty fearsome hunk of coloratura soprano writing -- a considerable escalation of the Cheer Up Ariadne effort beyond the lovely little song we heard Harlekin the baritone apply to the task.

I had planned to break the scene down a little into some component parts, and we're still going to do that, probably next week, but for now let's jump to the final section of the scene, in which Zerbinetta deals with this whole business of waiting-for-a god. It begins:

"Als ein Gott kam jeder gegangen"
("Like a god each one came")

Rondo
Like a god each one came,
and his very step bereft me of speech;
he had only to kiss my brow and cheek.
I was captive to the god
and became transfigured.
Like a god each one came,
each one transported me.
When he kissed my lips and cheeks
I surrendered without a word. . . .

-- English translation mostly by Peggie Cochrane

Erna Berger (s), Zerbinetta; Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Clemens Krauss, cond. Broadcast performance, Nov. 6, 1935

Hilde Gueden (s), Zerbinetta; Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, Aug. 7, 1954

Edita Gruberová (s), Zerbinetta; Gewandhaus Orchestra (Leipzig), Kurt Masur, cond. Philips, recorded January 1988

Again, we're going to break the scene down a little more, but as long as we've stumbled into it, I figure we might as well hear the whole of it.

R. STRAUSS: Ariadne auf Naxos, Op. 60: Aria, Zerbinetta, "Grossmächtige Prinzessin" ("Most mighty princess") . . . "Noch glaub' ich dem einen ganz mich gehörend" ("Often when I believe I belong to one man alone") . . . "So war es mit Pagliazzo" ("So it was with Pagliaccio and Mezzetino") . . . "Als ein Gott kam jeder gegangen" ("Like a god each one came")

ZERBINETTA [with a deep curtsey to ARIADNE]:
Most mighty princess, who doesn't know
that for such an illustrious and noble personage
grief must have a different measure
than for ordinary mortals. Yet --
[moving a step closer, but ARIADNE pays no attention to her]
are we not all women underneath, and does there not beat
in every breast an unfathomable heart?
[She moves still nearer with a curstey. ARIADNE, in order to avoid her, covers her face.]
To speak of our weakness,
to confess it to ourselves,
is it not bittersweet?
And does our heart not thrill at it?
You do not wish to listen to me --
beautiful and proud and still,
like a statue on your own tomb.
You want no other confidante, then,
than these rocks and waves?
[ARIADNE retires to the mouth of her cave.]
Princess, hear me out -- not you alone,
but all -- oh, all of us -- that which numbs your heart,
where is the woman who has not suffered it?
Forsaken! In despair! Marooned!
Oh, such desert islands are numberless,
even in the midst of men, I, I myself,
I have inhabited such more than once,
and have never learned to curse men.
[ARIADNE withdraws completely into her cave. ZERBINETTA addresses her words of consolation to the now invisible ARIADNE.]
Faithless -- they are that!
Monstrous, without bounds!
A brief night,
a hasty day,
a puff of air,
a fleeting second
transforms their heart!
But then, are we proof
against the cruel, delicious,
the inexplicable transformations?

Often when I believe I belong to one man alone,
when I feel completely sure of myself,
there steals into my sweetly deluded heart
an as-yet-untasted freedom,
a new and stealthy love,
roving, shameless emotions.
I am still true, and yet I am false.
I think myself good, and am already bad,
everything is measured with false weights
and half self-knowing and half in frenzy,
I deceive him in the end and yet love him truly!
Just when I feel completely sure of myself,'
there steals into my sweetly deluded heart
a new and stealthy love . . .
[Suddenly breaking off]

So it was with Pagliaccio
and Mezzetino.
Then it was Cavicchio,
then Burattino,
then Pasquariello!
Oh, and sometimes,
it seems to me,
there were two!
But never caprice,
always a compulsion,
always a new
tremulous wonder;
oh, that one's heart should have
so little understanding of itself.

Rondo
Like a god each one came,
and his very step bereft me of speech;
he had only to kiss my brow and cheek.
I was captive to the god
and became transfigured.
Like a god each one came,
each one transported me.
When he kissed my lips and cheeks
I surrendered without a word.
Like a god each one came,
each one transported me;
he had only to kiss my brow and cheek,
I was captive to the god,
I surrendered without a word.
Surrendered, ah!
When the new god approached,
I surrendered without a word, a word . . .

-- English translation mostly by Peggie Cochrane

["Noch glaub' ich," 3:25; "So war es mit Pagliazzo," 5:27; "Als ein Gott kam," 7:15] Sylvia Geszty (s), Zerbinetta; Staatskapelle Dresden, Rudolf Kempe, cond. EMI, recorded June-July 1968

[3:23, 5:19, 6:50] Roberta Peters (s), Zerbinetta; Vienna Philharmonic, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA-Decca, recorded 1958

[track 1 -- 3:34; track 2 -- 0:34, 2:32] Reri Grist (s), Zerbinetta; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Mar. 28, 1970

THE ARIADNE POSTS

Sunday Classics snapshots: Meet the composer, Richard Strauss-style (10/11/2015)
Why won't everyone just let poor abandoned Ariadne die in peace? (11/1/2015)
Richard Strauss: "Music is a holy art," sings Strauss's Composer -- plus Two (out of Four) Last Songs, part 1 (11/8/2015)
Richard Strauss: "Music is a holy art," sings Strauss's Composer -- plus Two (out of Four) Last Songs, part 2 (11/15/2015)
Richard Strauss in the twilight (12/6/2015)
Ariadne is "the symbol of human solitude" -- which is "just why she needs company" (says the Dance Master) (12/13/2015)
Ariadne and Fiordiligi: Real people and feelings vs. ideas about people and feelings (12/20/2015)
"We continue our detour through "Così fan tutte" on the road back to poor Ariadne, abandoned -- only now with company! -- on the isle of Naxos" (12/27/2015)
"Is Ariadne waiting for death, or for another lover?" (1/24/2016)

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