Ariadne auf Naxos

views updated

Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne on Naxos). Opera in prol. and 1 act by R. Strauss to lib. by Hofmannsthal. There are 2 versions. No.1 was designed for perf. after Molière's play Le bourgeois Gentilhomme (with incidental mus. by Strauss). Comp. 1911–12. F.p. Stuttgart 1912, London 1913. Perfs. at Salzburg Landesth. 1991–2 were the first in which the score was perf. without cuts. 2nd version substituted an operatic prol. for the play, comp. 1916, f.p. Vienna 1916, London 1924, Philadelphia 1928, NY 1934, Met 1962. Many other composers have based operas on the Ariadne legend. Naxos is the island on which Ariadne, awaiting death, is consoled by Bacchus.