Maxime Pascal

Music by Richard Strauss Opera in one prologue and one act Libretto by Hugo Von Hofmannsthal Length: 2h 30' approximately: 43' part I - 25' intermission - 82' part II

This production of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma highlights the opera’s rich theatrical dimension, playing with the boundaries between serious opera and comedy, illusion and reality. With a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the work combines a prologue in which an opera troupe and commedia dell’arte performers clash, followed by a single act telling the story of Ariadne abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, until the arrival of the god Bacchus transforms her fate. The Roman production emphasizes both Hofmannsthal’s refined dramaturgy and Strauss’s inventive orchestration, notably in Ariadne’s famous aria Es gibt ein Reich.