Sir Colin Davis brought out the best of the orchestra.  Mark Delavan nailed the role of Mandryka.  His usual facile handling of text was combined with a fluffed-out beard and a bad hair day to become the "half-peasant" lord called for by Strauss and von Hoffmanstal.  Heidi Stober brought off Zdenko very well, with the glasses adding to the illusion that she was a boy as well as singing the role beautifully.  Erin Wall sang wonderfully in costumes that did NOT quite fit the queen of the  ball (most beautiful Viennese girl...) but I was informed the next day that she is 5-6 months pregnant, explaining this minor problem.  Vocally she was very well-finished, introspective at the right times and singing the high Strauss lines beautifully.  All the duets and the Mine Elemer! monologue were right, never drowned otu by the orchestra or by Mandryka.  Matteo, who thinks he is so desparately in love with Arabella that he threatens suicide, but eventually wins the disguised sister Zdenka, was sung by the tall Zach Borichevsky, in music which is almost always between despair and hope.
    All the minor roles were done well, from the fortune teller and Adelaide (Victoria Livengood) to the three counts who have wooed Arabella to Fiakermilli, the spokeswoman for the Coachemen at the ball where Arabella is honored as Queen of the ball and says goodby to her childhood.
     The sets and costumes were very much the correct period, Vienna about 1910 in an impoverished
household of the minor nobility.  All in all, another evening when everything clicked correctly at the opera
house.