Photos: Inside Merola Opera Program's ARIADNE AUF NAXOS

San Francisco’s acclaimed Merola Opera Program continues its 2026 Summer Festival with the serio-comic Ariadne auf Naxos. Composed by Richard Strauss and conducted by Ann-Katrin Stöcker with stage direction by Omer Ben Seadia (Merola ’14), this piece blends mythological tragedy with comic opera. See photos of the pr

Framed as a show within a show, the opera takes a seriously delightful look at happiness, despair, and love, showcasing the talented Merola emerging artists. Celebrated for its inventive structure, virtuosic vocal writing, and seamless fusion of contrasting styles, the work holds an important place in the operatic canon as a sophisticated meditation on the relationship between art, emotion, and theatrical form. 

“Ariadne auf Naxos offers a rare balance of emotional depth and sharp theatrical wit, and this Merola production brings that duality vividly to life,” said conductor Ann-Katrin Stöcker and director Omer Ben Seadia. “Working with these emerging artists, we’ve been able to explore the opera’s constant tension between sincerity and performance, heartbreak and humor, in a way that feels both immediate and deeply human. What’s especially exciting is watching the artists step into a work that demands such vocal agility and dramatic awareness while still finding their own individual voices within it. The result is a production that feels alive to the present moment while honoring the sophistication and complexity at the heart of the score.”

 Bringing fresh insight and vocal excellence to this powerful work is a cast of rising opera artists from the 2026 Merola Opera Program cohort, each selected from a highly competitive international pool. Ariadne auf Naxos will star 2022 Merola alum soprano Adia Evans in the title role as the passionate and heartbroken Prima Donna/Ariadne, while San Francisco native soprano Emilie Kealani appears as the witty and spirited Zerbinetta, whose playful outlook on love offers a striking contrast to Ariadne’s despair. Mezzo-soprano Theo Claveles stars as the idealistic young Composer grappling with artistic compromise, while tenor Matthew Sink appears as both the hotheaded Tenor and Bacchus, the god whose arrival ultimately transforms Ariadne’s fate.

The cast of quick-witted commedia dell’arte characters include baritone Paul Jang as Harlequin, tenor Logan Wagner as Scaramuccio, bass John Mburu as Truffaldino, and tenor Cole McIlquham as Brighella. Soprano Jennifer Robinsonappears as Nyade, one of Ariadne’s attendants, while mezzo-soprano Katherine Dobbs performs as Dryade, another of her loyal companions, and soprano Abigail Raiford takes on Echo, the elusive voice who reflects and responds to Ariadne’s emotional world. Additional casting includes baritone Enes Pektaş as The Music Master, tenor Ryan Bryce Johnson as The Dancing Master and bass Raúl Morales Velazco as The Wigmaker, both members of the household staff in the Prologue’s backstage chaos, alongside bass Theo Harrah as a Footman, tenor Charles Styles as an Officer, and 2026 Merola stage director Claire Choquette as The Majordomo, who oversees the estate as the competing artistic worlds are brought into collision.

Richard Strauss (1864–1949) was one of the most influential composers of the late Romantic and early modern eras, best known for his richly orchestrated tone poems and operas. Working closely with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, he created landmark operatic works such as Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, Elektra (currently in production at San Francisco Opera), and Ariadne auf Naxos, which expanded the expressive and dramatic possibilities of the form. Strauss’s music is characterized by its lush harmonic language, vivid orchestration, and psychological depth, often blending irony, lyricism, and intense emotional contrast. His contributions helped shape the trajectory of 20th-century opera, bridging Romantic traditions with modern sensibilities.

Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, exists in two distinct versions that reflect its unusual and evolving history. The original 1912 version was conceived as a short opera intended to follow a performance of Molière’s The Bourgeois Gentleman, but the combination proved unwieldy in practice. Strauss and Hofmannsthal later revised the work extensively, premiering a new standalone version in 1916 that integrated a prologue with the opera itself. This final form, which will be presented by Merola, is structured as a “show within a show,” in which a wealthy patron’s demand to present both a serious mythological opera and a comic commedia dell’arte troupe leads to an unexpected artistic compromise. The work explores themes of artistic middle ground, the tension between high and popular art, and the unpredictability of performance, and it has since become a cornerstone of the operatic repertoire for its inventive structure and demanding vocal writing.

The creative team for Ariadne auf Naxos includes Ann-Katrin Stöcker (Conductor), Omer Ben Seadia (Director), Alexander Nichols (Scenic & Lighting Designer), Cynthia Savage (Costume Designer; costumes from Seattle Opera), and Brett Conway (Choreographer).

Ariadne auf Naxos will be presented 7 p.m., Thursday, July 30, and 2 p.m., Saturday, August 1, 2026, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak St., San Francisco. Ariadne auf Naxoswill be performed in German with English supertitles. For more information or to purchase tickets ($75; $25, ages 25 and under), the public may visit merola.org or call the San Francisco Box Office at 415-864-3330.

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