Richard Strauss in Berlin: Arabella at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Jennifer Davis & Heidi Stober

Richard Strauss: Arabella – Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2023 (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Richard Strauss: Arabella; Jennifer Davis, Heidi Stober, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Hye-Young Moon, Doris Soffel, Deutsche Oper Berlin, conductor: Donald Runnicles, director: Tobias Kratzer
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (20 March 2025) 

European travelling music man, Tony Cooper was in Berlin for three wonderful operas by Richard Strauss, in this first instalment he takes in Arabella at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, a lyrical comedy in three acts set to a text by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, was produced in 1911 when the composer was 47. Premièred at the Schauspielhaus, Dresden on 1 July 1933, the opera’s renowned for being his greatest achievement – popular the world over. In stark contrast, Arabella, composed 21 years later, is not nearly so popular but, nonetheless, I put it on a par with Der Rosenkavalier. Both operas are comedies set in Vienna; both are equally famous for including the waltz. 

When the show begins members of the audience find themselves sitting comfortably in an elegant and well-furnished suite of a luxury boutique hotel. Two compartmentalize sets, designed by Rainer Sellmaier, dominate the entire width of Deutsche Oper’s vast stage. 

Comprising a lounge and boudoir, adjacent to the hotel’s lobby, the occupant’s Graf Waldner and his impoverished family forced from their own home due to reduced circumstances mainly caused by Waldner’s gambling debts. At the hotel, he and his wife hope to find a man of stature, means and wealth to marry off his eldest daughter, Arabella, in hope of changing the family’s fortunes. 

Richard Strauss: Arabella – Jennifer Davis (Arabella), Heidi Stober (Zdenka) – Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2025 (Photo: Bettina Stöß)

The couple taking the roles of Graf Waldner and Gräfin Adelaide von Waldner, the scheming aristocrats, fell to Albert Pesendorfer and Doris Soffel. Her rendering of ‘Das gebe Gott! Heil’ge Mutter Gottes!’ (‘May you always be thanked and blessed, Holy Mother of God’) was delicately and honestly sung. 

A lovable deuce, they worked extremely well off each other with comedy to the fore especially in the riotous scene where the countess and members of her family gather round the Tarot-reading fortune-teller (played by Martina Baroni) to learn of their fate. 

Right down to the core it was an amusing scene greatly aided by video footage created by Manuel Braun and Jonas Dahl thereby offering the audience close-up shots of the Tarot cards. Such minute video footage as this popped up here, there and everywhere throughout a bright and intelligent production.  

The outcome of the reading came as no surprise: Arabella will marry a rich man; trouble, however, lies ahead. On hearing this news, excitement and nerves rolled into one, left the old girl in a whirl needing a whiff of smelling-salts to bring her round. 

The cast was further strengthened by Irish-born soprano, Jennifer Davis in the pivotal role of Arabella (Davis came to international attention after singing Elsa in Lohengrin at Covent Garden in 2018 under Andris Nelsons, and who sang the title role in Wexford Festival Opera’s 2022 production of Dvorak’s Armide, see Robert’s review). Her rendering of ‘Und du sollst mein Gebieter sein’ (‘And you shall be my master’) in the second act proved a stunning and immaculate performance while the trouser role of her mischievous tomboy sister, Zdenka, was magnificently sung and acted with panache by Heidi Stober.  

And, indeed, the highlight of the first act features Arabella and Zdenka in that well-loved duet – ‘Ich danke Fräulein…aber der Richtige’ (I thank Miss… but the right one) – sublimely and accurately sung, dramatically convincing, too, superb, in fact, full of poetic feeling and emotion but above all delivered with so much ease and graciousness that was so pleasing to hear in the confines of an opera-house harbouring good acoustics. 

The South Korean-born soprano, Hye-Young Moon, in the role of Die Fiakermilli, the ‘mascot’ of the Shrove Tuesday Coachmen’s Ball, fired up the opera’s action even further particularly in the florid coloratura aria ‘Die Wiener Herrn verstehn sich auf die Astronomie!’ (‘The Viennese gentlemen understand astronomy’), a fabulous ‘opener’ to the second act. Ms Moon’s vocal prowess and overall stage presence was second to none and her flirtatious behaviour, I thought, just right to ignite a masked ball!  

And it was at the ball where Arabella pinpoints the love of her life, Mandryka, a quick glance across a busy, confusing and riotous room, then on to more familiar territory. But not before muddling intervention by Zdenka confusing the relationship and causing utter mischief surrounding a supposed secret rendezvous between Arabella and Matteo, bumptiously (but gloriously) played by Daniel O’Hearn, a rather low-ranking penniless officer, looking for his chance, too, while the role of Mandryka was handsomely sung and acted by Thomas Johannes Mayer whose notable and urgent recitative ‘Halt! Du irgendeiner oder wer du bist!’ (‘Stop! You, anyone, or whoever you are’) suitably ended the second act. 

But igniting the ball to fever pitch, a bottle or two of Moët & Chandon champagne helped no end while Kratzer went full pelt by turning the evening’s festivities into an all-out orgy with the guests on fire and on form only stopping for breath to take in another glass of bubbly. Get the picture? A posh-looking lady member of the audience sitting directly in front of me had her opera-glasses well trained on the scene. She certainly got the picture.  

In reality, so did the partygoers when three Nazi-style uniformed soldiers arrive on the scene, interrupting the festivities and breaking up the waltzing party, reminding me to some extent of the final bars of Ravel’s La Valse where little by little, the waltz’s bliss is replaced by distorted rhythms and dissonant harmonies with the piece ending in an eruption of violence and chaos thus ending a Europe the composer loved. 

In fact, Strauss had a difficult time with the Nazi authorities over the style of his music. For a start, he fell out with propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who scolded him by saying: ‘Be silent and realize that you have no idea who you are and who I am. Franz Lehár (whose well-loved operetta, The Merry Widow, was Hitler’s ‘favourite’ work) has the interest of the masses, you don’t. The culture of tomorrow is different from that of yesterday. Therefore, Mr. Strauss, you are ‘‘yesterday’’.’ Thankfully, Richard Strauss is very much alive today judging by the popularity of Deutsche Oper’s mini-festival devoted to his operas and music. 

A stumbling-block besets Arabella before she can settle down with her well-heeled, bear-hunting husband, Mandryka. There’s a trio of ‘yesterday’ suitors to ward off. Ms Davis revelled in the scene when sending them packing to the delight of a packed and amused house. The disappointed trio: Thomas Cilluffo (Graf Elemer), Gerard Farreras (Graf Lamoral) and Kyle Miller (Graf Dominik) more than made their mark on a production – warm and so pleasing. 

Adding to the overall stage picture, the slick choreography by Jeroen Verbruggen highlighted by Rainer Sellmaier’s radiant range of costumes (assisted by Clara Luisa Hertel) more than hit the mark. And as the scenario travelled through the decades likewise the choreography and costumes changed, too. 

For instance, at the start of the opera traditional full-length ball gowns was the order of the day which gave way towards the end of the opera to Mary Quant-style knee-length, bright-coloured dresses, set off by platform heels while Stefan Woinke added so much to the overall stage picture by creating a grand lighting scenario.  

I felt, too, that as the style of fashion changed so did Arabella’s standing in society change. She became more independent, more interesting and more determined to reach her own goals in life. No longer searching for a husband. He’s waiting for her! Maybe, not? 

This fine production by Tobias Kratzer (who, by the way, stormed to success in the opera world with a blistering production of Tannhäuser on his Bayreuth début in 2019, see Tony’s review) not only harboured the elegance of the 19th century with the lovely and relaxing ‘waltz’ from that era but ‘jive’ dancing entered the equation, too, representing the glorious and free-wheeling Sixties and somewhere in the middle Flappers were kicking like mad the Charleston that added so much fun to the Roaring Twenties – and all of these dance forms were attractively performed by an excellent team of dancers recruited from the opera ballet of Deutsche Oper Berlin. They were having a whale of a time. So were the audience.  

A romantic comedy, though, needs a romantic ending and it manifests itself with a forlorn-looking Mandryka sitting head bowed with his back to Arabella ruminating over their squabbles brought about by that forged letter conjured up by mischievous Zdenka involving poor unsuspected old Matteo in the plot. As Arabella approaches him, she offers him a glass of water signifying reconciliation and marriage – an old Germanic custom, it seems. He drinks and tosses the empty glass away. They embrace, dance and laugh. Zdenka, of course, gets her fella, too. All is forgiven. A nice tidy ending all round. 

The orchestral richness and opulence of Strauss’ compelling score coupled with the period Viennese setting of the work led to Arabella (leaning towards ‘operetta’ in many respects) being falsely pigeonholed as a light-hearted comedy of errors. That’s not the case, I feel, in this realization by Kratzer who openly explores the modern idea of social interaction clearly illustrated by Zdenka and the question surrounding her role of gender-based identities.  

One got their money’s worth in this production which, incidentally, received its première at Deutsche Oper Berlin on 18 March 2023 in a joint production with Osterfestspielen Salzburg, directed by Florentine Klepper, mounted in honour of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.  

Sir Donald Runnicles, music director of Deutsche Oper Berlin worked wonders with the Deutsche Oper orchestra – he always does. An authoritative and well-respective conductor on the works of Richard Strauss and, indeed, Richard Wagner, he kept a perfect balance between the pit and the stage with the orchestra promptly having their say in a fine rendering of the lovely and inspiring ‘prelude’ that precedes the third act. Bravo! 

ARABELLA
Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles
Director: Tobias Kratzer
Set designer / costume designer: Rainer Sellmaier
Costume assistant: Clara Luisa Hertel
Choreographer: Jeroen Verbruggen
Lighting designer: Stefan Woinke
Video designers: Manuel Braun, Jonas Dahl,
Chor director: Jeremy Bines
Dramaturgy: Bettina Bartz, Jörg Königsdorf
Count Waldner: Albert Pesendorfer
Adelaide: Doris Soffel
Arabella: Jennifer Davis
Zdenka: Heidi Stober
Mandryka: Thomas Johannes Mayer
Matteo: Daniel O’Hearn
Graf Elemer: Thomas Cilluffo
Graf Dominik: Kyle Miller
Graf Lamoral: Gerard Farreras
Die Fiakermilli: Hye-Young Moon
Fortuneteller: Martina Baroni
Welko: Jörg Schörner
Djura: Michael Jamak
Jankel: Robert Hebenstreit
Room steward: Heiner Boßmeyer
Camera team: Silke Briel (on-stage), Lea Hopp, Janic Bebi
Das Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Das Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Das Opernballett der Deutschen Oper Berlin