Love, money and the power of destiny – that is how Arabella can be summarised in a nutshell. The opera centres on the titular character, the daughter of a count who has fallen into financial difficulties. The family hopes that she will solve the problem by marrying into wealth. However, she refuses to make any sensible concessions. She has no shortage of suitors, but she wants to find love on her own terms. So she rejects both elderly rich men and young bachelors, including Matteo, who loses his will to live as a result. He is saved from tragedy by Zdenka, his beloved’s sister, dressed up as a boy. She even delivers letters supposedly from Arabella, which Zdenka writes herself, forging her sister’s handwriting. Meanwhile, the bankrupt count conducts his own search for a husband for his unruly daughter, even sending an ‘offer’ to old Mandryka. Finally, a response arrives: Mandryka Junior, heir to his late uncle’s estate, appears at the door. He claims that he has already fallen in love with Arabella and immediately shares his cash with the count. Arabella happens to be in a meeting with the elderly aristocrat Elemer, but her thoughts revolve only around the mysterious figure she has been bumping into all day (‘Mein Elemer!’)… At a ball organised shortly afterwards, she learns that it was Mandryka. He is the man of her dreams! The young couple confess their love for each other (‘Sie woll'n mich heireten’) and promise to get engaged according to the tradition of the young man’s homeland, with the woman offering her future husband a glass of water from her father’s house. For now, however, the lovers part ways, and Matteo and Zdenka appear. Zdenka hands the tormented man an envelope to cheer him up, saying that it contains the key to Arabella’s room. Mandryka overhears this and, convinced of betrayal, dismisses his feelings. Meanwhile, Matteo spent the night with… Zdenka, whom, divested of her boyish clothes, he mistook for Arabella. When the intrigue comes to light, Mandryka begs his beloved for forgiveness, but she remains unmoved. However, she immediately appears with a glass of water in her hand (‘Das war sehr gut, Mandryka’)…
As Richard Strauss set the action of Arabella in dance-crazy Vienna in 1860, a city where the carnival season does not end with Lent, the waltz An der schönen blauen Donau by another Strauss – Johann II, from 1867 – seems the perfect conclusion to this operatic concert. However, before we reach the capital, we will be stopped by Karl Goldmark's Symphony No. 1 ‘Rustic Wedding’. Its idyllic Wedding Song, imitating folk music, Serenade and Dance, peppered with rustic humour, give an insight into what was happening in the countryside near Vienna at that time.
Piotr Mika (Ruch Muzyczny)
