Op­era in once act by Richard Strauss, Op. 60 (2^nd ver­sion, 1916 Vi­enna)
Po­etry by Hugo von Hof­mannsth­al

Fest­spiel­haus guests still en­thu­si­ast­ic­ally praise the pro­duc­tion of the “Cava­lier of the Rose” with Chris­ti­an Thiele­mann, Renée Flem­ing and Soph­ie Koch. And with this re­cord­ing of “Ariadne auf Naxos” the le­gend con­tin­ues! The Marschal­lin Renée Flem­ing will sing the role of Ariadne, whilst her former “Cava­lier” co-star Soph­ie Koch will play the Com­poser. With “Ariadne”, Strauss suc­ceeded in rep­lic­at­ing the suc­cess of the “Cava­lier of the Rose” but without re­sort­ing to re­pe­ti­tion.

The con­tent of this ever chan­ging com­edy / tragedy is per­haps even more re­fined than its pre­de­cessor, and in this latest op­era it be­comes clear that Strauss was a philo­gyn­ist. The sop­rano and alto roles are simply but ma­gic­ally com­bined. Strauss was the last of the great com­posers to let his sing­ers sing in a com­pletely re­laxed man­ner. The dir­ec­tion of Phil­ippe Ar­laud is sure to be equally re­laxed, won­der­fully deep­en­ing the on-stage at­mo­sphere with his light­ing and col­our ef­fects.

Renée Flem­ing, Ariadne / Prima Donna
Soph­ie Koch, The Com­poser
Eike Wilm Schulte, A Mu­sic Teach­er
Robert Dean Smith, Bac­chus / The Ten­or
Jane Archibald, Zer­bin­etta
Nikolay Borchev, Har­le­quine
Ken­neth Rober­son, Scara­muc­cio
Steven Humes, Truffaldino
Kev­in Con­ners, Brighella
Ro­man Grübn­er, Lackey
Dav­id Jer­u­s­alem, Wig­maker
Mi­chael Vent­ow, Of­ficer
Christina Land­shamer, Nai­ad
Rachel Fren­kel, Dry­ad
Len­neke Ruiten, Echo
René Kollo, Ma­jor­do­mo (speak­ing part)

Staat­skapelle Dresden
Chris­ti­an Thiele­mann, con­duct­or