Strauss Arabella opera to a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Directed 2014 by Florentine Klepper at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Stars Renée Fleming (Arabella), Thomas Hampson (Mandryka), Albert Dohmen (Graf Waldner), Gabriela Beňačková (Adelaide), and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (Zdenka), Daniel Behle (Matteo), Derek Welton (Dominik), Benjamin Bruns (Elemer), Steven Humes (Lamoral), Daniela Fally (Fiakermilli), Jane Henschel (Kartenaufschlägerin or fortune teller). Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden (Chorus Master Wolfram Tetzner). Sets by Florentine Klepper; costumes by Anna Sofie Tuma; lighting by Bernd Purkrabek; dramatury by Sophie Becker. Directed for TV by Brian Large. Sung in German. Released 2014, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio Sound. Grade: NA
Hugo Shirley, writing in the February 2015 Gramophone (pages 92-93) bemoans there is, "no disguising the fact that the voice [of Renée Fleming] has lost much of its creaminess, often thinning out where it should soar." He also pans Thomas Hampson for a "dry and undernourished" voice and director Florentine Klepper for inconsistence in approach. But Mark Mandel is more enthusiastic in his review in the March 2015 Opera News at pages 55-56. He says that Fleming and Hampson, though aging out, still have the "intelligence, musicianship, phrasing, acting, and looks" to acquit themselves well.
Here is a TV trailer:
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