The Richard Strauss Project: Ariadne auf Naxos

This comedy was the first Richard Strauss opera to be about...opera. 

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Twmple of Apollo on the Greek island of Naxos.

In the world of opera not everything goes as planned.

A case in point: Richard Strauss’ sixth opera and third collaboration with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The 1912 version of Ariadne auf Naxos was meant to be performed as a pendant to a Hofmannsthal adaptation of the Moliére play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, for which Strauss had written incidental music. Ariadne (planned as a 30 minute divertissement) would be the crowning jewel of the play. Except that Strauss’ opera ran 90 minutes, and when added to the already long Moliére play, the result was an evening longer than Die Meistersinger. 

It was the pair’s first failure. 

The Polls Are Closed!

The next Superconductor Audio Guide series will focus on Richard Strauss.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Richard Strauss stuffed the ballot box and will be the subject of the next Superconductor Audio Guide retrospective.
Photoshop and award design by Paul J. Pelkonen.

Superconductor has completed its first-ever reader's poll and the winner is....Richard Strauss!

The German composer is your choice to be the focus of the next series of Superconductor Audio Guides, the regular series that tracks the life of a great composer through a chronological output of operas and other pieces, and offers analysis of some of their major compositions. Last year the operas of Wagner and Mozart have been written up in this fashion, and this year it's Strauss' turn.

Richard Strauss represents the last bastion of German Romanticism. A masterful composer and conductor, he started as a creator of vivid, sometimes shocking tone poems that employed giant orchestras to create incredible effects. Today he is best remembered for the introduction to his tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra, used to memorable effect by Stanley Kubrick in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Later in his career, Strauss moved to opera, creating a string of works that ranged from the shocking and violent to drawing-room comedies. He wrote fifteen operas in total. About half of them are in the standard repertory, with rare works popping up when an ambitious conductor and a cast of good German singers are able to revive one. Seven Strauss operas will be looked at in this coming series, with another three added if we're all having a reasonably good time. The plan is as follows:

Salome: Strauss' third opera and first genuine success, the story of the Princess of Judea and the death of John the Baptist

Elektra: Greek tragedy, German orchestration. Blood everywhere.

Der Rosenkavalier: A turn toward Mozartean comedy and Strauss' biggest stage success.

Ariadne auf Naxos: The ultimate "desert island" opera mixes Greek drama and Italian commedia dell'arte

Die Frau ohne Schatten: A "quest" opera: think Die Zauberflöte on a Wagnerian scale.

Arabella: Another Viennese comedy, bittersweet and lovely.

Capriccio: Strauss' last opera is a meditation on the nature of opera itself.

If you voted for Giuseppe Verdi or Giacomo Puccini, they will both be covered in future blog installments. As of this writing, the plan is for seven (or ten) Strauss operas, followed by the early operas of Verdi (Nabucco through La Traviata) the major works of Puccini Manon Lescaut to Turandot) and finally, the late operas of Verdi (Simon Boccanegra to Falstaff. Yes there are gaps in that list.) That's the plan as of this writing but things could of course change. 

Opera Review: Ariadne on E. 13th St.

dell'Arte Opera Ensemble takes Strauss downtown.

Creative Team: Hugo von Hoffmannsthal (l.) and Richard Strauss
Photo © 195 Archives of the Salzburg Festval.

Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos is set onstage and backstage at a private theater belonging to "The Richest Man in Vienna." On Thursday night, the Dell'Arte Opera ensemble mounted the opera in the Little 13th Street Theater as part of their 2011 Standard Repertory Project. Though the surroundings were less opulent, the magic of this unique opera came through.


A collaboration between Strauss and his frequent librettist Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, Ariadne juxtaposes a high-flown opera seria with a burlesque troupe. Thanks to the whims of their patron, the two theater groups are forced to share the stage, to "liven up" the desolate island of Naxos. The work straddles three centuries, fusing the comic writing of Mozart, the majesty of Wagner and Strauss' own particular genius for the theater.

As Ariadne, Jane Shivick displayed a powerful instrument that was almost too big for the tiny theater. Her best moment was the low note ("Totenreich!") in "Er gibt ein reich", though she sang majestically in the final scene with Bacchus. Kevin Courtemanche did well with Bacchus' murderous, high tessitura, an example of Strauss' unkind writing for the tenor voice.


The high-strung Composer dominates the Prologue. Juli Borst has good acting ability and a resonant mezzo, especially in "O der Esel! Die Freud'! Du allmächtiger Gott." But Ms. Borst's voice hardened under pressure, expressing panic at the backstage creative crisis. In a final touch, the Composer returned to gaze proudly at the united Bacchus and Ariadne. Also notable: a strong spoken performance from Erik Kramer as the Haushofmeister, and Jack White as the Music Master who tries to keep the Composer from flying off the handle.

Zerbinetta is the star of the aforementioned comedians, and one of the most challenging parts for a high coloratura soprano. Jennifer Rossetti met the challenges of the ten-minute "Grossmachtige Prinzessin", including the high F notes called for on the fioratura passages. More importantly, she imbued the part with an easy sexuality and had good chemistry with the four players in the troupe. Their following quintet was more than an anti-climax: it was a highlight of the show.

This is the favorite opera of dell'Arte music director Christopher Fecteau. Leading a stripped-down 11-piece band (with a synthesizer adding to the orchestra and providing the timpani) Mr. Fecteau brought out the wit and humor of the Prologue. His little band changed idioms repeatedly, accompanying the comedy troupe with grace, switching to sweeping and sweeping lyricism for the plight of the stranded princess. Best of all, the conductor became involved with the performance, occasionally meeting the eyes of a harlequin player appealing for help from the small pit. But even conductors cannot sway a princess or a Zerbinetta.

Voted off the Island

Amber Wagner Replaces Deborah Voigt in Chicago Ariadne.

Amber Wagner as Elsa in this summer's production of Lohengrin at Savonlinna.
Photo © 2011 Savonlinna Festival

Casting changes from Chicago, where soprano Amber Wagner will step in for Deborah Voigt in the Lyric Opera's company revival of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos.

Ms. Voigt, who is currently appearing at the Glimmerglass Festival in a production of Annie Get Your Gun, announced today that she will be forsaking the role of Ariadne for heavier, dramatic roles. Ms. Voigt made her reputation as a Strauss specialist in the last two decades, and Ariadne has long been one of her signature parts.


Ms. Wagner is an American soprano. Her current repertory is similar to that of Ms. Voigt's a decade ago: Elsa in Lohengrin, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and a forthcoming appearance in Verdi's Nabucco at the Met this fall. She recently appeared as Elsa in the acclaimed Lyric staging of Lohengrin opposite tenor Johan Botha.

The news was reported this morning on Parterre Box. As the report quoted: Ms. Voigt “is focusing increasingly on dramatic soprano roles and has made the decision to remove the role of Ariadne from her repertoire for the time being.”

As a singer moves from light, to middle, to heavy repertory, the voice changes, and the vocal chords thicken. Unfortunately, the process is irreversable. With Ms. Voigt adding Salome, Brunnhilde and Puccini's La Fanciulla del West to her repertory, we may have heard the last of her Ariadne.

Opera Review: At Season's End, a Comic Gem

Ariadne auf Naxos at the Metropolitan Opera
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A Princess on the Rocks: Violeta Urmana as Ariadne.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2005 The Metropolitan Opera

Richard Strauss' opera-within-an-opera Ariadne auf Naxos is his shortest comic work, which may account for its repeated presence on the Metropolitan Opera stage. Strauss drafted two different versions of this combination of Greek tragedy and commedia dell'arte, loading  it with vocal challenges for the four leading characters. Happily, the Met has assembled a terrific cast for this revival, under the baton of principal guest conductor Fabio Luisi.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Ariadne auf Naxos

Kathleen Kim as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. 
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera presents its final revival of the 2010-2011 season: Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. Violeta Urmana sings the title role. Kathleen Kim is Zerbinetta, which is reason alone to see it. Joyce DiDonato is The Composer, another trouser role following the mezzo's successful run in Le Comte Ory. Fabio Luisi conducts.

Ariadne auf Naxos will never be Richard Strauss' most popular comedy (that title is held by Der Rosenkavalier), but this scintillating combination of backstage drama, commedia dell'arte and Greek drama is one of the Met's best productions.

Elijah Moshinsky does not spare the period detail in his recreation of backstage chaos at the private theater of "the richest man in Vienna", where the players in an Italian comic troupe are informed that they will be forced to share the stage with a new opera, a classical drama depicting the plight of the princess Ariadne, abandoned on the desert island of Naxos by Theseus.

When the opera starts, Moshinsky sets the action against a starry map of the heavens that manages to be modern and retro at the same time. It's visually impressive, especially with the three island nymphs singing twelve, fifteen, and twenty feet above the stage in long psychedelic gowns.

Anyway, Ariadne's repeated musings on death are interrupted by the comedians, who interpolate themselves into the action, led by Zerbinetta, a fearless coloratura. The show-stopper in this opera is her aria: "Grossmachtige Prinzessin," an 11-minute workout that makes "Die Hölle Rache" look like a walk in the park. Eventually, the princess is saved from her plight by the Greek god Bacchus, but not before Zerbinetta gets the final word.


Recording Recommendations:
Ariadne has been lucky on disc. With three plum female leads, the opera was a popular choice to be recorded in the studio, and the discography offers a panoply of great Strauss singing. Here's two reliable recordings, but there are also fine entries from Georg Solti, Kurt Masur and James Levine.

Philharmonia Orchestra cond. Herbert von Karajan (EMI. 1954)
Ariadne: Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
Zerbinetta: Rita Streich
Composer: Irmgaard Seefried
Bacchus: Rudolf Schock
The first studio recording of Ariadne has the benefit of Karajan's expert conducting and a glittering cast. Although La Schwarzkopf never sang the role of Ariadne onstage, this ranks with her other great '50s Strauss recordings of Capriccio and Der Rosenkavalier.. Mono sound.

Dresden Staatskapelle cond. Giuseppe Sinopoli (Deutsche Grammophon, 2001)
Ariadne: Deborah Voigt
Zerbinetta: Natalie Dessay
Composer: Anne Sofie von Otter
Bacchus: Ben Heppner
The best modern digital recording of this opera features Debbie and Ben in their vocal prime, making the arduously long duet of Ariadne and Bacchus a pleasure instead  of a chore. Natalie Dessay flies as Zerbinetta. This was Giuseppe Sinopoli's final recording before the conductor's untimely death at the age of 54, and is a superb example of what he could do with Strauss and singers.

Opera Within Opera...Within Opera?

The theater within a theater. Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez in Le Comte Ory.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met's current run of Rossini's Le Comte Ory features a miniature opera theater (complete with stage-hands) in the middle of the big Met stage. The company is also reviving Richard Strauss' Capriccio at the moment, which tries to settle the case of Words v. Music in the genre. With that in mind, here's the Superconductor list of...

Five Operas...About Opera

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
The most famous (or infamous) response to musical criticism (not to mention the longest) Wagner's lone comedy is the story of a young knight whose radical ideas shake the staid burghers of Ye Olde Nuremberg. Meistersinger was also Wagner's way of getting back at acid-tongued Vienna critic Eduard Hanslick, who championed Brahms even as he decried Wagner's so-called "music of the future."

The story goes that at a private reading of the libretto, the critic was so enraged at the appearance of a character named "Hans Licht", that he stormed out of the room. That character's name was later changed to Sixtus Beckmesser.
Read more about Die Meistersinger with the Superconductor review of a 2008 DVD from Bayreuth.

Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann
The titular character of Offenbach's final opera was himself an opera composer. Hoffmann opens at a tavern next door to an opera house which is currently staging Don Giovanni. In fact, the poet spins his three tales during the performance, which features his current obsession, the singer Stella. Two of those stories involve singing: the tale of the doll Olympia (whose "Les oiseaux" never fails to bring down the house) and the doomed opera singer Antonia, who expires onstage after her final high C.
Read the Superconductor review of the Met's September performance of Les contes d'Hoffmann.

Puccini: Tosca
The title character of Puccini's drama is an opera singer. In the second act, she fulfills a professional obligation, singing a cantata underneath Scarpia's offices in the Palazzo Varnese. Tosca is enjoying a revival at the Met right now, which makes the big opera house even more "meta."
Read the Superconductor review of this season's revival of Tosca.

Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Fer cryin' out loud, the Prologue of Richard Strauss' opera opens backstage at an opera company, in a private theater in the home of "the Richest Man in Vienna." The harried Composer is a prominent character, along with the tenor, the prima donna, and the Dancing Master. The second half is the opera itself, replete with comic interruptions.
Read the Superconductor review of last year's Ariadne auf Naxos

Pfitzner: Palestrina
Hans Pfitzner's opera is set during the Council of Trent, and is about the crisis faced by a composer under pressure from the Catholic Church to produce music that will (theoretically) save the idea of church music and eventually pave the way for Pfitzner to write an opera called...Palestrina. You get the idea. The best moments of Pfitzner's opera come when a choir of angels descends and inspires Palestrina to get to work. It's at the end of the first act.
Read the Superconductor review of Palestrina, a 2009 DVD version made in Munich.

CD Review: A Win For the Islanders

Giuseppe Sinopoli's final recording: Ariadne auf Naxos

Giuseppe Sinopoli

Giuseppe Sinopoli was one of the finest conductors of the latter half of the 20th century. Equally at home in the operas of Verdi and the symphonies of Mahler, he was one of many maestros to benefit from the surge in classical recordings in the first twenty years of the compact disc era. Although not every Sinopoli CD is definitive (much less essential) he always put his own stamp on the music he was conducting.

That maxim holds true for his final released recording, a studio recording of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, which was issued in 200_ by Deutsche Grammophon in commemoration of the conductor's untimely death. (And yes, I am reviewing a seven-year-old recording in this space but the set was added to my collection this year, and I finally got a chance to listen to it!)

It is a wonderful final testament. This Ariadne is an exquisite blend of light textures and majestic orchestral effects, Emphasis is on the somber drama of Ariadne's plight. Sinopoli, in his final complete Strauss recording, takes his usual iconoclastic approach. His freshly conceived tempos and subtle enhancements of woodwinds and strings bring out new sounds in a familiar score, enabling the listener to hear the opera as if for the first time.

This is an all-star cast. Deborah Voigt shows why Ariadne is one of her signiature roles. She is unquestionably the focus of this opera. Opposite her is the aerobatic Zerbinetta of Natalie Dessay, who nearly leaps out of the speakers for "Grossmachtige prinzessin."

Anne Sofie Von Otter's Composer dominates the opening Prologue--her interactions with Zerbinetta benefit from Von Otter's experience in trouser roles.Ben Heppner is suitably self-inflated in the Prologue; ringing and firm in the Opera. His Bacchus does not grate on the ears, and his his chemistry with Voigt is evident in the mighty final scene.

Sinopoli, like several great maestros before him, died on the podium. On April 20, 2001, he suffered a heart attack while leading Act III of Aida at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Ironically, he made his podium debut conducting this same opera in 1978.