Martinů: Ariane

Day 256

Martinů: Ariane

Soloists

Essener Philharmoniker

Thomáš Netopil

I don’t have much experience of Martinů. I’ve played a couple of his shorter pieces and have heard at least one of his symphonies but don’t really have a feel for what he is about as a composer. This short opera is a late piece which he wrote as a displacement activity while working on his large scale final opera The Greek Passion. The story is a deliberate homage to Monteverdi’s Arianna’s lament and the work finishes with an (in the context of a short opera) extended lamentation for the solo soprano. This certainly had something of the sprit of Monteverdi though it was never mere pastiche. Perhaps the most immediate attractive music was the three short interludes between scenes. Neo-classical Stravinsky here was the most obvious point of reference - indeed the first of the three could have been incorporated into the Rakes Progress without anybody suspecting anything untoward. 

I suspect that the ‘real’ Martinů is found in the longer operas and perhaps I need to devote some time to them. But I certainly enjoyed listening to Ariane , though I wouldn’t rate it, at least on first hearing, as an out-and-out masterpiece.