| Richard Strauss |
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Operas
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Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne on Naxos) is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.
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The opera was originally conceived as a thirty-minute divertissement to be performed at the end of Hofmannsthal's adaptation of Molière's play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Besides the opera, Strauss provided incidental music to be performed during the play. In the end, the opera occupied ninety minutes, and the performance of play plus opera occupied over six hours. It was first performed at the Hoftheater, Stuttgart, on 25 October 1912. The director was Max Reinhardt. The combination of the play and opera proved to be unsatisfactory to the audience: those who had come to hear the opera resented having to wait until the play finished.
The first version was produced in Zurich beginning on 5 December 1912 and Prague on 7 December 1912.[1] The Munich premiere followed on 30 January 1913 in the old Residenztheater, a venue which was inferior for the presentation of opera, both acoustically and due to lack of space for the musicians. Hofmannsthal overruled the conductor Bruno Walter's preference for the Hofoper on the grounds that the smaller theatre was more suitable for a work of this kind. The cast included the American Maude Fay as Ariadne, Otto Wolf as Bacchus, and Hermine Bosetti as Zerbinetta. Strauss, being a native son, had a close association with Munich and was held in high regard, but had to miss the performance as he was on a concert tour in Russia. The audience openly expressed its disapproval of the piece by hissing after the first act. For the succeeding performances Walter introduced cuts and moved the production to the Hoftheater, and the attendance began to improve.[2] The 1912 version was also produced in Berlin beginning on 27 February 1913 and in Amsterdam in 1914.[1]
In London the early version was given eight times at His Majesty's Theatre beginning on 27 May 1913. The Hoffmannsthal adaptation of Molière's play was presented in an English translation by Somerset Maugham under the title The Perfect Gentleman. The opera was sung in German with Eva von der Osten, Hermine Bosetti and Otakar Marák, conducted by Thomas Beecham. The reviewer in The Musical Times found the incidental music for the play to be more attractive than that for the opera, which nevertheless had "many strong emotional appeals". However, the orchestration of the opera was thought to be "peculiar", and in the finale, the love-making of Bacchus and Ariadne, tedious.[3][4]
After these initial performances, it became apparent that the work as it stood was impractical: it required a company of actors as well as an opera company, and was thus very expensive to mount, and its length was likely to be a problem for audiences. So in 1913 Hofmannsthal proposed to Strauss that the play should be replaced by a prologue which would explain why the opera combines a serious classical story with a comedy performed by a commedia dell'arte group. He also moved the action from Paris to Vienna. Strauss was initially reluctant, but he composed the prologue (and modified some aspects of the opera) in 1916, and this revised version was first performed at the Hofoper, Vienna, on 4 October of that year. This is the version that is normally staged today, although the original play-plus-opera is occasionally performed (for example, at the 1997 Edinburgh International Festival).
The most important aria in either version is "Großmächtige Prinzessin" / "high and mighty princess". It is sung by Zerbinetta.
After its premiere in Vienna the second version was first performed in Berlin on 1 November 1916, followed by Zurich on 28 January 1917 (in a production by the Mannheim Opera). It was first presented in Budapest on 19 April 1919 (in Hungarian in a translation by Z. Harsányi), and in German in Graz on 12 March 1920, Amsterdam in January 1924,[1] and London at the Royal Opera House on 27 May 1924 with Lotte Lehmann as Ariadne, Maria Ivogün as Zerbinetta (in her debut with the company), Elisabeth Schumann as the Composer, Karl Fischer-Niemann as Bacchus, and Carl Alwin conducting. Despite the stellar cast the production was not successful, with one of the lowest box office returns of the season, and was repeated only once.[5]
It was first performed in Italy in Turin at the Teatro di Turino on 7 December 1925 (in an Italian translation by O. Schanzer); in Sweden in Stockholm on 27 November 1926 (in Swedish); in Brussels on 17 March 1930 (in a French translation by P. Spaak); in Helsinki on 12 May 1931 (in a Finnish translation by A. af Enehjelm); in Rome at the Teatro Reale on 28 March 1935 (in German); Antwerp on 28 September 1935 (in Flemish); and in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées on 10 September 1937 (in German).[1]
The United States premiere of the opera was given in German by the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company at the Academy of Music on 1 November 1928. Conducted by Alexander Smallens, the cast included Alma Peterson as the Primadonna/Ariadne, Charlotte Boykin as Zerbinetta, Irene Williams as the Composer, and Judson House as the Tenor/Bacchus.[6] It was presented by the Juilliard School in New York City in English in a translation by A. Kalisch on 5 December 1934[1] with a cast of students including Josephine Antoine as Zerbinetta, Mack Harrell as Truffaldino, and Risë Stevens as Dryad.[7] The opera was performed for the first time in Canada by the New York City Opera on tour at the Montreal Festivals in 1946.[8]
The opera was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on 29 December 1962 with Leonie Rysanek as Ariadne, Jess Thomas as Bacchus, Gianna D'Angelo as Zerbinetta, the mezzo-soprano Kerstin Meyer as the Composer, Walter Cassel as the Music Master, and Karl Böhm conducting.[9] As of 20 February 2010 it had been performed there a total of 88 times with revivals of the original production in 1963–4, 1970, 1976, 1979, 1984–5, and 1987–8, and a new production, designed by Elijah Moshinsky, first presented in 1993, followed by revivals in 1994, 1996–7, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2010. The opera is a favorite of the Met's music director James Levine, who has conducted it a total of 44 times from 1976 to 2003. Interpreters of the role of Ariadne at the Met have included Jessye Norman (22 appearances from 1984 to 1993) and Deborah Voigt (17 appearances from 1993 to 2003). The role of the Composer has been sung there most often by a mezzo-soprano (at least 64 times), including, besides Kerstin Meyer, who sang the role 6 times, Tatiana Troyanos (19 appearances from 1976 to 1988), Susanne Mentzer (20 appearances from 1993 to 2003), Susan Graham (5 appearances in the fall of 2005) and Sarah Connolly (5 appearances in the winter of 2010). Soprano interpreters of the Composer have included Irmgard Seefried, Teresa Stratas (9 appearances: 4 in 1963–4; 1 in 1970; and 4 in the spring of 1994), Evelyn Lear (4 appearances in March 1970), and Maria Ewing (8 appearances in 1984–5). Singers of the coloratura soprano role of Zerbinetta have included, besides Gianna D'Angelo, who sang it 7 times, Roberta Peters (7 appearances in 1963–4), Kathleen Battle (9 appearances in 1987–8), and Natalie Dessay (12 appearances: 7 in the fall of 1997 and 5 in the spring of 2003).[10]
| Role | Voice type | Stuttgart Premiere, 25 October 1912 (Conductor: Richard Strauss) |
Vienna Premiere, 4 October 1916 (revised version) (Conductor: Franz Schalk)[11] |
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| Prologue | Opera | |||
| The prima donna | Ariadne | soprano | Maria Jeritza | Maria Jeritza |
| The tenor | Bacchus | tenor | Herman Jadlowker | Béla von Környey |
| Zerbinetta | soprano | Margarethe Siems | Selma Kurz | |
| Harlequin, a player | baritone | Albin Swoboda, Jr. | Hans Duhan | |
| Scaramuccio, a player | tenor | Georg Maeder | Hermann Gallos | |
| Truffaldino, a player | bass | Reinhold Fritz | Julius Betetto | |
| Brighella, a player | tenor | Franz Schwerdt | Adolph Nemeth | |
| The composer | soprano[12] | Lotte Lehmann, replacing Marie Gutheil-Schoder |
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| His music master | baritone | Hans Duhan | ||
| The dancing master | tenor | Georg Maikl | ||
| A wigmaker | baritone | Gerhard Stehmann | ||
| A lackey | bass | Viktor Madin | ||
| An officer | tenor | Anton Arnold | ||
| The Major-Domo | spoken | Anton August Stoll | ||
| Naiad, a nymph | high soprano | M. Junker-Burchardt | Charlotte Dahmen | |
| Dryad, a nymph | contralto | Sigrid Onégin | Hermine Kittel | |
| Echo, a nymph | soprano | Erna Ellmenreich | Carola Jovanovic | |
| Servants | ||||
Ariadne auf Naxos is in two parts, called the Prologue and the Opera. The first part shows the backstage circumstances leading up to the second part, which is in fact an opera within an opera.
At the home of 'the richest man in Vienna,' preparations for an evening of music are under way. Two groups of musicians have arrived; one is a burlesque group, led by the saucy comedienne Zerbinetta, the other an opera company, who will present a serious opera, Ariadne auf Naxos. The preparations are thrown into confusion when the Major-domo announces that both performances must take place at the same time.
At first, the impetuous young Composer refuses to discuss any changes to his opera. But when his teacher, the Music Master, points out that his pay depends on accepting the situation, and counsels him to be prudent—and when Zerbinetta turns the full force of her charm on him—he drops his objections. But when he realizes what he has assented to, he is once again plunged into despair and storms out.
Ariadne is shown abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, bewailing her fate, as she mourns her lost love and longs for death. Zerbinetta and her four companions from the burlesque group enter and attempt to cheer Ariadne by singing and dancing, but without success. In a sustained and dazzling piece of coloratura singing Zerbinetta insists that the simplest way to get over a broken heart is to find another man. In a comic interlude, each of the clowns pursues Zerbinetta.
The three nymphs—Naiad, Dryad, and Echo—then announce the arrival of a stranger on the island. At first Ariadne thinks he is the messenger of death; but in fact it is the god Bacchus who is under the spell of the sorceress Circe. He falls instantly in love with Ariadne and promises to set her in the heavens as a constellation. Zerbinetta returns briefly to repeat her philosophy of love. The opera then ends with the passionate singing of Ariadne and Bacchus.
| 1912 version | 1916 version |
|---|---|
| Opera is preceded by Der Bürger als Edelmann, Hofmannsthal's translation of Molière's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, with incidental music by Strauss; "Du Venus' Sohn" is sung by an unnamed singer | Opera is preceded by Prologue; the only music retained from Der Bürger als Edelmann is "Du Venus' Sohn" which is sung by the Composer |
| Jourdain interjects various spoken comments during the opera, particularly during the opening | no comments are made during the opera |
| Grossmächtige Prinzessin: The end of "Noch glaub' ich" (before "So wär es mit Paggliazzo") continues with an instrumental repetition of the tune and ends on a B major chord | "Noch glaub' ich" cuts off and ends on an A major chord |
| Grossmächtige Prinzessin: "So war es mit Pagliazzo" begins in E major | "So war es mit Pagliazzo" begins in D major |
| Grossmächtige Prinzessin: "Als ein Gott kam Jeder gegangen" begins in E major | "Als ein Gott kam Jeder gegangen" begins in D major |
| Grossmächtige Prinzessin: After the 2nd repetition of "Als ein Gott" the aria continues to develop, including a long accompanied cadenza, ending in E major | The aria is cut down and ends in D major |
| After Zerbinetta's "Wie er feurig sich erniedert!" there is a short passage continuing the quartet for her, Brighella, Scaramuccio and Truffaldin beginning with the words "Wie der Druck den Druck erwidert" | After Zerbinetta's "Wie er feurig sich erniedert!" she continues "mach ich ihn auf diese neidig" |
| Before Zerbinetta and Harlekin sing together in octaves "Hand und Lippe, Mund und Hand!" there is a short passage of 8 measures during which Harlekin sings "Wie der Druck den Druck erwidert!" | From Zerbinetta's utterance of "Hand und Lippe" sing "ai, ai, ai, ai" and immediately goes into the duet between Zerbinetta and Harlekin |
| After Zerbinetta and Harlekin sing together in octaves "Hand und Lippe, Mund und Hand!" there are several pages continuing the quartet | After Zerbinetta and Harlekin sing together the quartet continues |
| After Ariadne sings "Die deiner lange harret nimm sie dahin!" Zerbinetta has an aria "Prinzessin! Welchen Boten lohn hab ich verdient?"; Nayad, Dryad, and later Ariadne have interjections during the aria | After Ariadne's "Die deiner lange harret nimm sie dahin!" she sees Thesus and cries out his name; there is no aria for Zerbinetta |
| After Zerbinetta's aria "Prinzessin! Welchen Boten lohn hab ich verdient?" Ariadne has a few lines invoking her mother; thereafter follows an orchestral passage, at the end of which she sees Thesus and cries his name | There is no corresponding passage |
| After the final duet between Ariadne and Bacchus, Zerbinetta returns with an aria combining motives from "Komm der neue Gott gegangen" and "So war's mit Pagliazzo und Mezzetin!"; Harlekin, Truffaldin, Brighella and Scaramuccio eventually join in | The opera ends after the Ariadne-Bacchus duet with a big orchestral conclusion |
| At the end of the Zerbinetta and company's final number, a lackey enters and tells Jourdain that the fireworks are beginning; he reflects on what people think of him and what he sees in himself; the work ends with music associated with Jourdain | There is no corresponding passage |