Ariadne auf Naxos
Royal Swedish Opera

Ariadne auf Naxos

Strauss
This performance is no longer viewable as video-on-demand for rights reasons but other material about the production is still available.
Streamed on Available until Recorded on
Sung in
German
Subtitles in
English
German
Swedish

The composer is stressed. His little opera ensemble is about to perform Ariadne auf Naxos, a grandiose opera of his own making, at the home of a wealthy man. But the very same evening a troupe of players led by the colourful Zerbinetta will also perform, and the two ensembles fight over who is to go first. The threat of cuts is driving the earnest composer to near breakdown. This is the comic prologue to the opera about Ariadne that the audience will be attending after the intermission.

After Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier, the composer Richard Strauss and the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal were opera’s foremost duo in the first decades of the 20th century. They chose to follow up the two successes with a challenging experiment: an opera about an opera and a story about artistic creation. Ariadne auf Naxos is metafiction in its most enjoyable form, an opera that makes the audience aware of its own role in an entertaining way. It is a comic opera where spoken theatre is mixed with song. Strauss’ shimmeringly melodious and extravagantly orchestrated music is here performed under the baton of the Royal Swedish Opera Music Director Alan Gilbert and with Christina Nilsson, Johanna Rudström, Sofie Asplund, Michael Weinius and the actor Andreas T. Olsson in the leading roles.

Cast

 

Major-Domo
Andreas T Olsson
Music Master
Ola Eliasson
The Composer
Johanna Rudström
The Tenor / Bacchus
Michael Weinius
An officer
Jesper Taube
Dancing Master
Petter Moen
A wigmaker
Jan Sörberg
A lackey
Johan Edholm
Zerbinetta
Sofie Asplund
Prima Donna / Ariadne
Christina Nilsson
Harlequin
Jens Persson Hertzman
Scaramuccio
Jonas Degerfeldt
Truffaldino
Erik Rosenius
Brighella
Klas Hedlund
Naiad
Madeleine Allsop
Dryad
Kari Koskinen
Echo
Agnes Auer
Puppeteers
Henrik Bäckbro
Linn Bergstam
Annika From Borg
Orchestra
Royal Swedish Orchestra
...
Music
Richard Strauss
Text
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Conductor
Alan Gilbert
Director
Katharina Jakhelln Semb
Set Design / Costumes
Susanne Mûnzner
Light
Susanna Hedin
Puppet Design
Kirjan Waage
Gwendolyn Warnock
(Wakka Wakka Productions)
...

Videos

Trailer

Sneak peek at Ariadne auf Naxos

Strauss’s ode to opera.

Read lessRead more
Extract

Sein wir wieder gut

Johanna Rudström sings ‘Sein wir wieder gut’ from Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos at Royal Swedish Opera.

Read lessRead more
Extract

Zerbinetta's aria (‘Großmächtige Prinzessin’)

Sofie Asplund sings Zerbinetta's aria ‘Großmächtige Prinzessin’ from Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos at Royal Swedish Opera.

Read lessRead more
Behind the scenes

Introduction to Ariadne auf Naxos

Director Katharina Jakhelln Semb and Musical Director Alan Gilbert meet with dramaturg Katarina Aronsson at Royal Swedish Opera before the premiere of Richard Strauss' metaopera Ariadne auf Naxos.

Read lessRead more

The story

The Prologue

A famous, immensely wealthy art patron in Vienna has invited prominent figures of the cultural elite to a major event at his home. After dinner, the work of a young, talented composer will be performed for the first time: the tragic opera Ariadne auf Naxos.

The ensemble is busy with the final preparations when the director, who is also a music teacher and friend of the composer, is told, to his surprise, that another ensemble will also be performing. As the patron has planned a light-hearted end to the evening, he has engaged a commedia dell’arte group, starring the famous Zerbinetta, to perform an opera buffa-style epilogue after which giant fireworks will conclude the entertainment.

The composer is furious, and moments later disaster strikes when the major-domo announces that his master wishes to see both works, the tragic and the comic, performed.

This is followed by complete confusion. The composer wants to run away rather than seeing his work desecrated and his ideals ruined. It is only after great efforts on the part of the music teacher and the ballet master that he promises to stay and conduct his opera as well as make cuts in the score. But Zerbinetta restores the composer’s self-confidence. Partly in jest and partly in earnest, she sparks his young love, and when he finally wakes up from his enchantment, it is too late for him to change his mind.
 

The Opera

The king’s daughter, Ariadne, lies in front of a cave on a desert island in deepest despair. She has been abandoned by her lover, the hero Theseus. Three nymphs – Naiad, Dryad and Echo – have lulled the unfortunate woman to rest briefly with their song. It seems to Ariadne that death is the only way to escape her grief.

At this moment the commedia dell’arte company appears and try to comfort the princess in her distress.

Zerbinetta talks to Ariadne about her outlook on life, love especially, but there is no response. The players compete for Zerbinetta’s attention, and Harlequin wins. The nymphs rush in to announce the arrival of the god Bacchus. He has just escaped the tricks of the sorceress Circe and is now steering his ship towards Naxos.

As if in a trance, Ariadne goes to meet him, certain that he is Hermes, the gods’ messenger, who will guide her to the realm of death. She collapses ecstatically into his arms, but instead of death, she encounters life and love.