„Shining heights, fine emotions“: Ilia Papandreou celebrated as Ariadne

On 26th Janu­ary Ilia Papandreou gave her ova­ti­on-cele­bra­ted debut at the Main­fran­ken Thea­ter Würz­burg as inter­pre­ter of the title role in Richard Strauss’ ope­ra Ari­ad­ne auf Naxos. Under the musi­cal direc­tion of GMD Enri­co Cales­so and direc­ted by Domi­ni­que Hor­witz, Ilia Papandreou per­for­med in a Strauss ope­ra for the first time sin­ce her debut as Marschallin.

“With a warm voice and gre­at inward­ness, Ilia Papandreou cap­ti­va­tes her audi­ence,” says Frank W. Brei­ten­stein in BR Klas­sik. For Rena­te Frey­ei­sen (O‑Ton), Ilia Papandreou stands out from the cir­cle of “out­stan­ding sin­ger-actors […] alo­ne through her wistful ari­as”: “Ilia Papandreou gives [the Ari­ad­ne] with her high­ly dra­ma­tic sopra­no bril­li­ant heights, fine emo­ti­ons in ever-roun­ded lines, and she also looks dazz­ling, per­so­ni­fy­ing her grief and lon­ging for death convincingly. ”

Mathi­as Wie­demann (Main-Post) reco­gni­zes in the pri­ma don­na or Ari­ad­ne the “dra­ma­ti­cal­ly most ungra­teful role” of the ope­ra, “but Ilia Papandreou sings hers­elf with a lar­ge, clear sopra­no and lumi­nous pre­sence in the spot­light. Abo­ve all, it is her voice that car­ri­es the tre­men­dous melo­dic rich­ness of the music. ”