The Times
'Ariadne is one of the American soprano’s signature roles and I’d want to hear the results even if she sang in Esperanto. Few singers can beat her for matching a full vocal bloom to vivid dramatic gifts... Before the opera begins, we’ve enjoyed the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s bright bounce in Strauss’s suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the Molière play to which Ariadne was originally attached. The attention to detail and the spirited conducting of Richard Armstrong continue in the opera itself. The harmonium’s throb, the faint prickle of a harp: Chandos’s recording misses nothing. Other singers also bring joy.'
Recorded in Usher Hall, Edinburgh
and Trident Audio Post, London
Producers - Brian Couzens (Executive) and Brian Pidgeon
Sound engineers - Ralph Couzens, Jonathan Cooper
and Stephen O'Toole
Assistant engineers - Jonathan Cooper and Peter Newble
The Sunday Telegraph
‘I have nothing but praise for this splendid recording. Sir Richard Armstrong conducts a lucid performance in which every detail is captured by the engineers... the cast is stunning, headed by Christine Brewer in glorious voice as Ariadne; the lustrous mezzo Alice Coote, tender, impulsive and rapturous as the Composer; Alan Opie, an understanding but exasperated Music Master; Gillian Keith a stratospheric Zerbinetta; and Robert Dean-Smith as lyrical a Bacchus as one is likely to find today.’
Opera in a prologue and one act
Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
English translation by Christopher Cowell
The Cast
Prologue
Stephen Fry spoken - Major-Domo
Christine Brewer, soprano
- The Prima Donna (later Ariadne)
Robert Dean Smith, tenor - The Tenor (later Bacchus)
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano - Composer
Alan Opie, baritone - Music Master
John Graham-Hall, tenor - Dancing Master
Paul Keohone, bass - A Wigmaker
Dean Robinson, bass - A Footman
Declan McCusker, tenor - An Officer
Commedia dell'arte Players
Gillian Keith, soprano - Zerbinetta
Roderick Williams, baritone - Harlequin
John Graham-Hall, tenor - Scaramuccio
Matthew Rose, bass - Truffaldino
Wynne Evans, tenor - Brighella
Opera Seria
Christine Brewer, soprano - Ariadne
Robert Dean Smith, tenor - Bacchus
Anita Watson, soprano - Naiad
Pamela Helen Stephen, mezzo-soprano - Dryad
Gail Pearson, soprano - Echo
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Bradley Creswick - guest leader
Catriona Beveridge - piano
Gareth Hancock - assistant conductor
Richard Armstrong - conductor
The Sunday Times’s one of the ‘Top 100 Albums of 2010'
International Record Review
‘My first thoughts on hearing this Ariadne in English were, ‘Why isn’t the Prologue always done in the vernacular?’ Perhaps it was the presence of the miraculous Stephen Fry as the Major-Domo... Being able to hear each intricate request and snipe, every bit of rapturous sincerity from the Composer, really makes this Prologue come to life. The opera is equally well treated in Christopher Cowell’s translation, with even much of Zerbinetta’s aria understandable... Alice Coote’s Composer, passionate, angry, romantic, with lines delivered rapidly, is superb. Alan Opie’s Music Master is sharply characterized; John Graham-Hall’s Dancing Master is properly fussy and witty. Christine Brewer’s Prima Donna/Ariadne is towering... I cannot recall hearing this role so easily sung... As a sui generis performance, it can’t be recommended highly enough: straight from the shoulder, it would also do as your only Ariadne, correct language notwithstanding.'
The Financial Times
‘With support from the Peter Moores Foundation, Chandos has assembled an excellent Anglo-American cast for this new recording in English of Strauss’s two-part opera about opera. The dialogue crackles and there’s a palpable sense of drama, notably when Alice Coote, a Composer of poise and ardour, is centre-stage. With singer actors of the calibre of Alan Opie and John Graham-Hall, the smaller parts are bracingly characterised, and the casting of Stephen Fry in the speaking role of Major-Domo is inspired... The recording’s value lies in preserving Christine Brewer’s Ariadne - warm, majestic and humane, rising to radiant heights in the finale with Robert Dean Smith’s Bacchus.’
Classic FM Magazine
‘The first part of the piece is a quick-fire scene in which the various performers flirt and fight before the performance, and it could hardly be sung with more spirit or fun. Stephen Fry is delightfully pompous in the short spoken-role of the Major-Domo too. In the second part Christine Brewer makes a glorious Ariadne, and tenor Robert Dean Smith impresses with his unforced, shining account of the cruelly demanding role of Bacchus... An excellent English-language performance that can stand alongside, although not displace, benchmarks such as Herbert von Karajan’s 1954 recording.’
