Inadvertent Theseus: Ariadne in Naxos @ Glimmerglass, part 1

Francesca Zambello’s new production of Ariadne at Glimmerglass draws on two key features of upstate New York: first, that at some point early in its history, the people responsible for naming municipalities in the state of New York went on a Classics binge, which is how Syracuse got associated with college basketball and Ithaca with granola progressivism, Attica with prison riots and Utica with whatever Utica is associated with. The second is that, much of upstate having been since the Gilded Age a summer getaway land for wealthy, art-appreciating New York City people, a lot of art gets done in the hinterlands, not least an opera festival way out in Otsego County, in a little semi-gentrified farming town surrounded by more semi-gentrified farming towns.

So the conceit for this production is the entirely plausible idea that a wealthy estate owner has decided to have a summer entertainment put on in his barn, and to accomplish this has imported the talent to the sticks somewhere NNW of New Paltz. The barn has a fairly unreliable map of New York State painted onto it, and head shots of the principles in the scheduled opera seria pinned up next to the doors, which slide open to reveal a vintage tractor and a piano amid the hay bales. Also there are goats and a chicken. Later there will be a stage.

The Diva arrives, as we know somewhat disconcerted by what it turns out she’s being asked to do, more so in this production by where she’s being asked to do it.

Christine Goerke as Prima Donna in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2014 production of
Strauss' "Ariadne in Naxos." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Then Zerbinetta’s troupe arrives, looking a bit like a Brooklyn punk cabaret act lured up the Thruway from the Bard Festival’s Spiegeltent.

L to R: Carlton Ford as Harlequin, Brian Ross Yeakley as Brighella, Rachele Gilmore as Zerbinetta, Gerard Michael D'Emilio as Truffaldino, Andrew Penning as Scaramuccio and Wynn Harmon as Manager of the Estate in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2014 production of Strauss' "Ariadne in Naxos." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Chaos ensues, you know the spiel.

In keeping with the general drift of women being in control of the creative process in this production within a production (the Prima Donna, the Comedienne, the Director, and the Conductor), Zambello has tossed out the Composer as trouser role and just made the Composer a woman in trousers.

Catherine Martin as Composer in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2014 production of
Strauss' "Ariadne in Naxos."
Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.

SPOILER: The Composer gets the girl, and so does Zerbinetta.