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RICHARD STR AUSS

ARIADNE AUF NAXOS

SYNOPSIS PROLOGUE The servants of the richest man in Vienna are busy preparing the stage for a performance in their master’s palace. Behind the scenes the two troupes hired for the occasion are making their preparations: the one troupe is to present its rendition of the first work by a young composer, the opera Ariadne auf Naxos, the other a dance masquerade in Italian buffo style. The mutual jealousy between the members of the two troupes causes emotions to run high. Even more so when the unexpected and incomprehensible programme change that the host, represented by his Majordomo, announces: at his wish, the two performances will not take place consecutively, but are to be presented simultaneously to the invited guests. Deeply distressed, the Composer, who is concerned about the accurate realisation of his artistic vision, wants to withdraw his creation and abandon the first public performance. But the pragmatic Music Master and above all Zerbinetta, who is adept in all the skills of seduction and in no time has the inexperienced young Composer in her sway, persuade him to change his mind. With an emphatic hymn to music, the Composer bows to reality and the instructions of his patron. The opera Ariadne auf Naxos is accordingly performed in the desired manner, with interludes by a troupe of Italian comedians.

Previous pages: KATE LINDSEY as COMPOSER

SYNOPSIS

OPERA In front of a cave on the beaches of the island of Naxos, Ariadne awaits her death, as she has been deserted by Theseus, her res cuer and lover. And so she does not hear or pay attention to any thing around her: not the three nymphs, not the comedians who try to cheer her up, not even Zerbinetta, who based on her rich experience in a breakneck aria advises the grieving Ariadne not to shed a tear over her vanished lover and to be open to a new love. A radiant youth approaches from afar: Bacchus, the god of eternal renewal. He has just fled from the arms of the enchantress Circe, where he was unable to find what he was looking for. Ariadne, taking him for a messenger of death, goes to meet him and immediately, without realising it, becomes inflamed with an ecstatic passion that is reciprocated by the god. Each transformed by the other and as if newborn, Ariadne and Bacchus conclude the opera as a well-nigh mystically united couple.

MYTHOLOGY OF ARIADNE In Greek mythology, Ariadne was the daughter of Minor, king of Crete and son of Zeus, and Pasiphaë, who was the daughter of the sun god Helios. When the hero Theseus set out to kill the man-eating Minotaur that lived in the Labyrinth in Crete, he fell in love with Minotaur’s half-sister, Ariadne. She helped Theseus by giving him a ball of thread so that he could find his way out of the Labyrinth after killing the Minotaur. Together with Theseus, Ariadne fled from Crete to Athens, but was left behind as she slept on the island of Naxos, and fell into despair. There

she found the god of fertility, Dionysus (Bacchus), a son of Zeus. Dionysus, called the twice-born, was conceived by his father with Persephone. However, when he was torn apart by the Titans at the behest of Hera, Zeus swallowed his heart in order to save him. Together with Semele he fathered his son a second time, and saved him again when his mother died by fire at the instigation of Hera. Zeus sewed the unborn child into his thigh and gave birth to him later. Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne on Naxos and married her. As his wife, Ariadne gave birth to four sons.

When the difficult entrance, retraced by none before, Was found with the aid of the maiden by means of thread gathered up again, Immediately the son of Aegeus, carrying away the daughter of Minos, Sets sail for Naxos, and cruelly deserts his companion On those shores. Her, thus deserted and greatly lamenting, Bacchus embraces and aids; and that she may for ever Be famed by a lasting Constellation, he takes the crown From her head and hurls it up. It flies through the air; And see, as it flies its jewels are suddenly changed into sparks, And they settle in their places, the shape of the crown still remaining, Between the Constellation resting on his knee and that which holds the serpents. From Book VIII of Metamorphoses by Ovid

LISE DAVIDSEN as ARIADNE

ANDREAS LÁNG

THE GREAT TRANSFORMER METAMORPHOSES AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE OPERATIC WORKS OF RICHARD STRAUSS Transformation is in the theatre, transformation happens there, theatre lives through transformation. Changes of scene, mistaken realities (here reality, there immersion in a world of fiction) change of performers, from private individuals into the characters to be played, emotional turmoil for susceptible members of the audience – all these are buzzwords, aspects of the metamorphic institution we call theatre. Those who enter such a place as members of the audience at a performance are aware of this circumstance, and therefore allow themselves to be transformed. Those who enter the theatre by the stage entrance are also aware of this circumstance, and carry out such transformations themselves. Those who have creative functions at the theatre are likewise aware of this circumstance, and create transformations themselves. Richard Strauss the great practitioner of music theatre and even greater creator of music, even

went so far as to make transformation the leitmotif of his œuvre. And so it was not exactly by chance that he wrote his Metamorphosen towards the end of his life as the start of his last new musical approach. It is only when one browses through the operas of Richard Strauss that one is struck by the frequency with which he chose transformation as his theme. At times this was in combination with the ambience of the theatre and its setting. Ariadne auf Naxos, with its theatre within a theatre, is probably the absolute climax in this respect. A fugue of many parts in which the theme of transformation occurs time and time again, sometimes alone, sometimes in parallel, and sometimes restrained. The prima donna is transformed into Ariadne, Ariadne herself becomes transformed, the caricature of a tenor becomes the ideal image of a god, and the casual comedian Zerbinetta becomes a muse. The Composer of the

THE GREAT TRANSFORMER

prologue undergoes the most extensive metamorphosis, his work simultaneously similar to several. The emphatic upswings in Strauss’s score highlight not only the most important of them, they also initiate them in the listener, and Zerbinetta extols them rather impressively with respect to love. Strauss and Hofmannsthal introduced a very special transformation in Rosenkavalier, the work that preceded Ariadne. It is one that concerns us all, and that probably motivates most people to reflect upon it, since it proceeds steadily, but imperceptibly, at no distinguishable moment in time, and nevertheless it cannot be denied: getting old. “How can that happen? How does dear God do this? And yet I am always the same,” sings the Marschallin in the first act. How contrary this transformation is to that of The Composer in Ariadne. This is outwardly clearly visible, but is not felt by the person concerned. It leaves behind hardly any visible traces, and yet it changes the entire being of the young man. As a result, he may even curiously observe himself in a mirror to see whether his emotional transformation has not after all resulted in a change of his own features too. The most obvious metamorphosis in Strauss’s works of opera is probably to be found in Daphne. This is because here an actual, physical transformation of a person into another state of being – into a (perfect) tree takes place. And this irreversibly. But above all, this transformation happens with the approval – and indeed at the express wish – of the title character. This therefore differs from the opera Ariadne, in which the leading character – though she strives for the transformation of

death – eventually undergoes a change of a very different, vibrant nature (with which she is also very happy). The fact that Strauss created Daphne’s flight and transformation towards the end of his life may at first glance appear to be due to chance. However, it is not surprising for an ageing artist, since the transforming power of love – such as is extolled by Zerbinetta – is more the preserve of younger composers, just like the one in the prologue of Ariadne. Besides Daphne and Ariadne, there were two further instances in which Strauss drew on Greek mythology for the opera stage. In both cases transformations or metamorphoses are factors determining the action of the operas. In Die Liebe der Danae, Jupiter – the eventual loser in love – appears first as golden rain, then in the form of Midas, then as golden rain again, and finally as an old man. Meanwhile Danae – like Jill in the subsequent James Bond film Goldfinger – is condemned to be transformed into a golden statue. In Die ägyptische Helena, on the other hand, the situation is vaguely reminiscent of Hagen’s magic potion in Wagner’s Göt terdämmerung. Menelas’s inner transformations are caused by magic and memory potions so as to eventually bring the story to a happy end. From mythology, it is not far to the fairy tale – to be precise to Die Frau ohne Schatten, where two metamorphoses take place simultaneously. These two metamorphoses happen at one and the same time. The existence of the one must inevitably make the other obsolete, and vice versa – but one of them must take place. Either that of the empress from the spirit world to a human existence (as eventually happens) or that of the emperor from a liv-