Ariadne auf Naxos
Text Hugo von Hofmannsthal→ Oper in einem Akt nebst einem Vorspiel
Cast 11.11.2022
Details
»Ariadne auf Naxos«, the third collaboration between Strauss and Hofmannsthal, premiered at the Vienna Court Opera in 1916 in its second (and known) version. The opera itself revolves around Ariadne's encounter with the ghosts of her loneliness. It is preceded by a nightmarish scherzo about theatre creators at the mercy of a patron's whims.
SYNOPSIS:
In front of a cave on the beaches of the island of Naxos, Ariadne awaits her death, as she has been deserted by Theseus, her rescuer and lover. And so she does not hear or pay attention to anything around her: not the three nymphs, not the comedians who try to cheer her up, not even Zerbinetta, who based on her rich experience in a breakneck aria advises the grieving Ariadne not to shed a tear over her vanished lover and to be open to a new love.
A radiant youth approaches from afar: Bacchus, the god of eternal renewal. He has just fled from the arms of the enchantress Circe, where he was unable to find what he was looking for. Ariadne, taking him for a messenger of death, goes to meet him and immediately, without realizing it, becomes inflamed with an ecstatic passion that is reciprocated by the god. Each transformed by the other and as if newborn, Ariadne and Bacchus conclude the opera as a well-nigh mys- tically united couple.
»Ariadne auf Naxos«, the third collaboration between Strauss and Hofmannsthal, premiered at the Vienna Court Opera in 1916 in its second (and known) version. The opera itself revolves around Ariadne's encounter with the ghosts of her loneliness. It is preceded by a nightmarish scherzo about theatre creators at the mercy of a patron's whims.
SYNOPSIS:
In front of a cave on the beaches of the island of Naxos, Ariadne awaits her death, as she has been deserted by Theseus, her rescuer and lover. And so she does not hear or pay attention to anything around her: not the three nymphs, not the comedians who try to cheer her up, not even Zerbinetta, who based on her rich experience in a breakneck aria advises the grieving Ariadne not to shed a tear over her vanished lover and to be open to a new love.
A radiant youth approaches from afar: Bacchus, the god of eternal renewal. He has just fled from the arms of the enchantress Circe, where he was unable to find what he was looking for. Ariadne, taking him for a messenger of death, goes to meet him and immediately, without realizing it, becomes inflamed with an ecstatic passion that is reciprocated by the god. Each transformed by the other and as if newborn, Ariadne and Bacchus conclude the opera as a well-nigh mys- tically united couple.