Ariadne auf Naxos at Minnesota Opera

Dates: (9/26/2015 - 10/4/2015 )

Theatre:

Minnesota Opera

620 North First Street
Minneapolis,MN MN 55401

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Phone: 612-333-2700

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Cast Creative Edit

When the wealthiest man in Vienna double-books a group of buttoned-up opera singers and a band of bawdy comedians as dinner entertainment, the fun begins. Ariadne and her fellow singers must perform their serious opera, now including the saucy comedy troupe’s antics. This opera-within-an-opera tickles your funny bone one minute and tugs at your heartstrings the next. Richard Strauss’ look at art, fidelity and love is at once divinely comic and achingly tender, enchanting audiences from the beginning to the last note.

Act I: The Prologue

It is Vienna, 1916, and Austria is in the waning years of World War I. The scene is the home of a wealthy Viennese aristocrat where preparations are underway for an elaborate evening of entertainment. However, trouble is brewing behind the scenes. The Major-Domo has announced to the Music Master that the Opera commissioned for the occasion is to be followed by a Comedy. When the Music Master informs his protégé, The Composer, of this desecration, the young man is quite distraught.

However, he is soon uplifted when he meets the leading comedienne, Zerbinetta, from the comedy troupe, as he is at once smitten with her. But now the Major-Domo announces that the master of the house has changed his mind about the evening’s entertainment; the Opera is not to precede the Comedy but rather is to be performed simultaneously. The stunned artists hastily work out a compromise as the guests assemble for the evening’s show.

In creating his opera, the idealistic young Composer used the myth of Ariadne on Naxos to comment on the tragedy of the war, with the heroic soldier represented by Bacchus and the faithful woman represented by Ariadne. Upon seeing the guests enthusiastically greet Zerbinetta, The Composer realizes that the audience isn’t interested in “high art” such as his opera; rather, they prefer more decadent and vulgar forms of entertainment, such as that of Zerbinetta’s comedy troupe. He rushes off in despair.

Act II: The Opera, Ariadne auf Naxos

Theseus has left Ariadne at their island home with her three attendants, Naiad, Dryad, and Echo. She knows he will never return. Prostrate with grief, she longs for death. According to the compromise worked out in the Prologue, is is the duty of the comedy troupe to cheer her. They attempt to persuade her that life is still worth living, that the future has much in store, but Ariadne remains unconvinced. Zerbinetta then presents her philosophy of love: that is, even while a girl is in love with one man, she feels an attraction to the inevitable next. Heartbreak and abandonment are the common lot of women, says Zerbinetta, but do not despair, for beyond each disappointment a new love is always waiting. This philosophy is quite contrary to Ariadne’s belief in being faithful unto death to one man.

Ariadne, unaffected by Zerbinetta’s advice, determines to end her life, but in her last madness hears the three servants singing the praises of a young man, Bacchus, who has been through the experience of the debasing enchantress Circe (the War) and has remained uncorrupted, pure and heroic. When Bacchus appears, Ariadne welcomes this paragon, believing it to be Theseus magically returned, or the God of death himself. She imagines that the young Bacchus, who admires her faithful constancy, will restore her to life on a new plane. This miraculous act will confirm that he is a God and that the two shall then go forward to become immortal representatives of the Honorable Soldier and the Constant Woman. Enthralled with their vision of each other, the two unite, now transformed.

Suddenly Zerbinetta appears from the wings and reminds the audience that she was right all along; a new man has come along.

Authors

Hugo Von Hofmannstahl
Richard Strauss

Cast and Creative team for Ariadne auf Naxos at Minnesota Opera

Music by Richard Strauss.

Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

Amber Wagner
Ariadne

Brian Jagde
Bacchus

Hanna Hipp
The Composer

Dale Travis
The Music Master

Andrew Lovato
Harlequin

Brad Benoit
Scaramuccio

Benjamin Sieverding
Truffaldino

David Walton
Brighella

Gerard Michael D’Emilio
The Lackey

Siena Forest
Echo

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