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Berlin Opera Academy presents: Ariadne auf naxos, Richard Strauss Musikalische Leitung: Matthew Toogood Regisseurin: Marcin Lakomicki Beleuchtung: Simone lx Requisiten- und Bühnenbildteam: Simone Serlenga, Anya Tunjic, Anna Grzelewska Haushofmeister: Johanna Mergener Musiklehrer: Aziz Sahbazovic Komponist: Churan Qiu Tenor/Bacchus: Joel Edwards Jr Offizier: DaSean Stokes Tanzmeister: Ari Wibowo Perückenmeister: Jonathan Mildner Lakai: Cesare Filiberto Tenuta Zerbinetta: Brooke Iva Lohman Primadonna/Ariadne: Xu Jiaxin Harlekin: Oliver Warren Hassall Scaramuccio: Thomas Cromwell Truffaldin: Cesare Filiberto Tenuta Brighella: Jorge Luis Martinez Zazueta Najade: Elizabeth Barrow Dryade: Patrícia Silveira Echo: Tamzin Barnett I. Violinen: Amélia Pack (Konzertmeisterin), Yulia Kozlovska, Nalin Young, Gabriela Leżańska II. Violinen: Shai Wexler, Elizabeth Gage, Rachel Stonham, Talia Sinclair III. Violinen: ngrid Ekberg, Julia Cepedello Cuerva, Maya Lynn, Maddalena Severin I. Bratschen: Hyemin Lee, Quirine Kingma II. Bratschen: Sofía Pérez Calvo, Marie Renault I. Violoncelli: Andrea Stringhetti, Clara San José Casajús II. Violoncelli: Andrew Rogers, Carol Tsai Kontrabass: Natacha Stumpe, Melisande Lochak Flöten: Eliza Woodward, Lucy Walsh Oboen: Yuka Kato, Mathilde Abd El Kader Klarinetten & Bassethörner: Michele Zaccagnino, Tomer Aglamaz Hörner: Isabella Gonzalez Diaz, Rory John Marshall-McClelland Fagotte: Andrea Ferencova, Till Weder Trompete: Diogo Filipe Da Silva Couto Posaune: Thomas Ly Perkussion: Frank Peacock, Ken Yanagisawa Harfe: Mariaconstanza D’Agostino Klavier: Boram Ahn Celeste: Farhad Garayusifli Harmonium: Stefanos Argyriou Prologue In the house of the richest man in Vienna, where a sumptuous banquet is to be held in the evening, two theatrical groups are busy preparing their entertainments. The Music Master protests to the Major-domo about the decision to follow his pupil’s opera seria, Ariadne auf Naxos, with ‘vulgar buffoonery’. The Major-domo makes it plain that he who pays the piper calls the tune and that the fireworks display will begin at nine o’clock. The Composer wants a last-minute rehearsal with the violinists, but they are playing during dinner. The soprano who is to sing Ariadne is not available to go through her aria; the tenor cast as Bacchus objects to his wig. There is typical backstage chaos. Seeing the attractive Zerbinetta and inquiring who she is, the composer is told by the Music Master that she is the leader of the commedia dell’arte group which is to perform after the opera. Outraged, the Composer’s wrath is turned aside when a new melody occurs to him. The Major-domo returns to announce that his master now requires both entertainments to be performed simultaneously and still to end at nine o’clock sharp. More uproar, during which the Dancing Master suggests that the Composer should cut his opera to accommodate the harlequinade’s dances. The plot of Ariadne is explained to Zerbinetta, who mocks the idea of ‘languishing in passionate longing and praying for death’. To her, another lover is the answer. Zerbinetta and the Composer find they have something in common when Zerbinetta tells him ‘A moment is nothing – a glance is much’. ‘Who can say that my heart is in the part I play?’ Heartened, the Composer sings of music’s power. But when he sees the comedians scampering about, he cries, ‘I should not have allowed it.’ Opera On the island of Naxos, where Ariadne has been abandoned by Theseus, who took her with him from Crete after she had helped him to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne is asleep, watched over by three nymphs, Naiad, Dryad, and Echo. They describe her perpetual inconsolable weeping. Ariadne wakes. She can think of nothing except her betrayal by Theseus and wants death to end her suffering. Zerbinetta and the comedians cannot believe in her desperation and Harlequin vainly tries to cheer her with a song about the joys of life. She sings of the purity of the kingdom of death and longs for Hermes to lead her there. The comedians again try to cheer her up with singing and dancing but to no avail. Zerbinetta sends them away and tries on her own, with her long coloratura aria, the gist of which is that there are plenty of other men besides Theseus. In the middle of the aria, Ariadne goes into her cave. Zerbinetta and her troupe then enact their entertainment in which the four comedians court her. The three nymphs excitedly announce the arrival of the young god Bacchus, who has just escaped from the sorceress Circe. At first, he mistakes Ariadne for another Circe, while she mistakes him for Theseus and then Hermes. But in the duet that follows, reality takes over and Ariadne’s longing for death becomes a longing for love as Bacchus becomes aware of his divinity. As passion enfolds them, Zerbinetta comments that she was right all along: ‘Off with the old, on with the new.’
