Opera on 3: Ariadne auf Naxos

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Opera on 3

Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

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Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

Karita Mattila in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, recorded at the Royal Opera House.

Another chance to hear Karita Mattila as Ariadne and Roberto Sacca as Bacchus in Strauss's opera. Antonio Pappano conducts the ROH Orchestra in Christof Loy's production.

Tonight’s Opera on 3 was originally scheduled to feature the soprano Karita Mattila in the planned ROH production in April of Janacek's Jenufa. That production was cancelled with the current closure of the Opera House but this repeat broadcast is an opportunity to hear Karita Mattila in another opera, Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos.

Karita Mattila stars as the prima donna who appears later as Ariadne and Roberto Sacca is the tenor, later Bacchus, in this often funny work which once again sets a libretto by Strauss's greatest collaborator, the librettist Hugo von Hoffmansthal. The work was originally intended as a short divertissement to be performed after Hoffmansthal's version of Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme which itself had incidental music by Strauss. However, it soon became clear that in this version the work wouldn't be performed often due to the expense. So it was revised as an opera in a prologue and one act, albeit with a small orchestra and with another of Strauss's great soprano roles.

Presented by Ivan Hewitt, and was first broadcast in July 2014 as part of the Richard Strauss 150 celebration.


Ariadne / The Prima Donna ..... Karita Mattila (Soprano)
Bacchus / The Tenor ..... Roberto Sacca (Tenor)
Zerbinetta ..... Jane Archibald (Soprano)
The Composer ..... Ruxandra Donose (Mezzo-soprano)
Harlequin ..... Markus Werba (Baritone)
Music Master ..... Thomas Allen (Baritone)
Dancing Master ..... Ed Lyon (Tenor)
Wig Maker ..... Ashley Riches (Baritone)
Lackey ..... Jihoon Kim (Bass Baritone)
Scaramuccio ..... Wynne Evans (Tenor)
Brighella ..... Paul Schweinester (Tenor)
Truffaldino ..... Jeremy White (Bass)
Officer ..... David Butt Philip (Baritone)
Naiad ..... Sofia Fomina (Soprano)
Dryad ..... Karen Cargill (Mezzo-soprano)
Echo ..... Kiandra Howarth (Soprano)
Major Domo ..... Christopher Quest (Speaker)
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Antonio Pappano (Conductor)

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