How does a crazy opera plot create a vehicle for beautiful singing? In 1912, Strauss was presented with the idea of an opera to follow a play by Hofmannsthal. Not surprisingly, it didn't work and cost a lot – and audiences disliked it. In 1916 they created the version we know now – all opera (or rather two operas within another opera!) but improbably it proved a wonderful vehicle for wonderful singing.
In days of yore, we met this opera - in 2017 - here's our web page then.
All you have to know to approach this work is the basic plot of an event requiring two incompatible theatrical works to be performed simultaneously. (That’s because rich host insists there isn’t time for separate performances he’s paid for.) Thereby we get arguments for and against both opera seria (about Ariadne on Naxos) and opera buffa (a lot of nonsense that can carry tragic undertones). And of course a lot of drama as they interrupt each other.
We also get three extraordinary characters, all played by women. There’s the supersensitive Composer of the serious opera (sung by a mezzo), agonising that his work is to be despoiled.
And the scintillating performances of the leader of the comic crew (Zerbinetta, sung by a coloratura soprano) spiked with revelations that all in her life is not comedy. Zerbinetta was a role relished by the wonderful Natalie Dessay. Here she is at Metropolitan Opera in 2003 with Deborah Voigt rolling her eyes as Ariadne. And here's Dessay in full voice.
And then, of course, there’s Ariadne, who, when given a chance to lament the loss of Theseus, does so, at great length, to some of Strauss’s most extraordinary music, and is ticked off by Zerbinetta for not getting on with life. Which she does, when Bacchus turns up. Listen here as the incomparable Jessye Norman sings Ariadne’s monologue
It helps if you know the story of Ariadne, of course. She was the daughter of Minos, the King who kept the Minotaur – half man, half bull and incidentally Ariadne’s half brother – who demanded and devoured regular sacrifices of maidens and youths in his labyrinth. Ariadne fell for Theseus and gave him a thread to get him out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur (apparently noone had thought of that trick before.) In return he took her to the isle of Naxos. Here’s Britannica’s brief version.
We meet her on Naxos in the Composer’s opera after Theseus has left her there to return to Athens (that didn’t turn out well either) and before Bacchus turns up to replace him in Ariadne's heart. Get it?
Our production stars another famed Ariadne of our times, Renée Fleming. Listen here to bits of an interview about her Strauss roles and what's special for her in singing them.
We’re watching a recording of the 2012 performance in Baden-Baden with Sophie Koch as the Composer and Jane Archibald as Zerbinetta. Christian Thielemann heads the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, (which performed the world premieres of nine Strauss operas!) It had mixed reviews, for the acting and also for the production overall.
But oh the singing!!