Strauss' metaopera ARIADNE AUF NAXOS

The composer is stressed. His little opera ensemble is about to perform Ariadne auf Naxos, a grandiose opera of his own making, at the home of a wealthy man. But the very same evening a troupe of players led by the colourful Zerbinetta will also perform, and the two ensembles fight over who is to go first. Suggestions for cuts is driving the earnest composer to near breakdown. This is the comic prologue to the opera about Ariadne that the audience will be attending after the intermission.

After Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier, the composer Richard Strauss and the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was the foremost duo of operatic fame. They chose to follow up the two successes with a challenging experiment: an opera about an opera and a story about artistic creation. Ariadne auf Naxos is metafiction in its most enjoyable form, an opera that makes the audience aware of its own role in an entertaining way. It is a comic opera where spoken theatre is mixed with song. Enjoy Strauss’ shimmeringly melodious and extravagantly orchestrated music under the baton of the Royal Swedish Opera Music Director Alan Gilbert and with Christina Nilsson, Sofie Asplund, Michael Weinius and the actor Andreas T. Olsson in the leading roles.