Strauss, Arabella: Budapest Spring Festival

About the Event

The Hungarian State Opera House is presenting Richard Strauss's lyrical opera "Arabella" during the Budapest Spring Festival 2012.

“This comedy may prove better than The Knight of the Rose. The characters are very distinct in my mind, and promise excellent contrasts. The two girls (both sopranos) may be developed into magnificent singing roles. Their characters relate almost exactly like Carmen and Micaela. I may again, like seventeen years ago, be able to offer you something that facilitates easy‐flowing, joyous creative work,” wrote Hofmannsthal to Richard Strauss. This account of a splendid libretto must have reassured the composer who was on the verge of desperation as he urged his co‐author to “write something. It could even be a second The Knight of the Rose, if nothing better comes to mind. A makeshift solution… so that I don’t get out of practice.” Strauss’s impatience is “understandable,” as in a week he was to finish the opera he was working on, The Egyptian Helen.
As in The Knight of the Rose, Vienna provides the scene for this lyrical comedy, set in 1860, at the time of the carnival. No longer an “unhistorical” play on styles, the waltz now provides the natural aural environment of the tale, its musical scenery. Hofmannsthal conceived of the piece almost as an operetta.

Arabella was enthusiastically received, the 1933 Dresden première was an out‐and‐out success. The Budapest Opera House was consequently eager to present it, and came out with its production a year later. It, however, never became part of the repertoire, and has not been seen in Hungary since its local premiere. Since Hofmannsthal died in 1929, Strauss made the necessary adjustments for the final version of the libretto himself.

The story is about the two daughters of an impoverished count. One of them, Arabella, is hoped to find a rich suitor, while the family’s dire fortunes force her sister, Zdenka, to wear boys’ clothes. Arabella is dreaming of a love match, and a candidate does come in sight soon. Zdenka, on the other hand, hopes to win the heart of a lieutenant who harbours unrequited love for Arabella. Following amusing and risqué adventures, the sisters can eventually tie their fate to the men of their choice.

Arabella: Eszter Sümegi
Zdenka, her sister: Zita Váradi
Count Waldner, their father, a retired cavalry officer: László Szvétek
Adelaide, their mother: Bernadett Wiedemann
Mandryka, a Croatian landowner: Béla Perencz
Matteo, a young officer: Dániel Pataki Potyók
Count Elemer, one of Arabella's suitors: Attila Wendler
Count Dominik, another: János Gurbán
Count Lamoral, a third: Sándor Egri
The Fiakermilli, belle of the Coachmen's Ball: Erika Miklósa
Welko, Djura and Jankel, Mandryka's servants: Dániel Roska
Conductor: Stefan Soltész

With: Orchestra and Chorus of the Hungarian State Opera House


Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal


Director: László Marton

Opera in three acts, sung in German with Hungarian surtitles.