| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 29-Dec-2012 Staatsoper | Bechtolf's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Vienna Staatsoper |
 A new production of Ariadne auf Naxos is a major draw in itself, but a queue for standing room whose end is on the other side of the opera house is news even in Vienna, especially when the performance is not the première, but the fourth in a run of five and also the one that Franz Welser-Möst left to Jeffrey Tate, who has conducted the piece to positive reviews before. But with no rehearsals and a pit full of substitutes, he found himself unfairly challenged by scratchy violins, impure brass and winds, and botched entries from all directions.Read full review... | |
| 3-Aug-2012 Haus für Mozart | Ariadne auf Naxos dismantled at the Salzburg Festival |
 Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Ariadne auf Naxos was first performed in 1912, in a production directed by Max Reinhardt. Unlike the version usually seen today, this first Ariadne was a long-winded play-opera-ballet hybrid, incorporating a full production of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme with dances to incidental music by Strauss followed by the short opera. Less than a decade later these three men would found the Salzburg Festival, so it seems only appropriate that the festival is celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Ariadne.Read full review... | |
| 12-Feb-2012 Opernhaus | Ariadne in Zurich |
 Richard Strauss’ outstanding catalogue of operas is part of the staple diet of opera houses around the world. From the musically and dramatically intense scores of Salome and Elektra to the romantically lush, emotional sweepings of Der Rosenkavalier, there is something in his canon for all manner of opera enthusiasts. Ariadne auf Naxos (first performed in Stuttgart in 1912) has had many popular revivals, though may still be counted amongst Strauss’ rarer performed works – any opportunity in which to hear it should be taken.Read full review... | |
| 11-Dec-2011 Civic Opera House | Lyric Opera of Chicago presents a taut, effective Ariadne auf Naxos |
 The gist of Ariadne auf Naxos, Richard Strauss’ opera-within-an-opera, is this: a demanding patron insists on having his entertainment for a given evening – a burlesque act and an opera – combined into one work, greatly upsetting the archetypal “serious artist” composer of the opera. Already Strauss’ depiction onstage of a classical composer asks certain questions of the integrity of art, its place in society, and so forth.Read full review... | |
