Ariadne auf Naxos
Find out more about this new production, on stage next summer.
A brief introduction:
The richest man in Vienna has commissioned an evening’s entertainment: a comic burlesque, and an opera by a high-minded young composer based on the Greek myth of Ariadne. But when the two performances are forced to take place simultaneously, high and low art meet with unexpected consequences.
Opposites collide in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos: both a comedy and a sweeping drama; a historical pastiche and a modern opera; a love story and an interrogation of art itself. All are deftly interwoven in this gorgeous opera-within-an-opera that tests music’s capacity to express human life in all its contradictions and complexity.
Why not to miss it:
Director Laurent Pelly – whose previous Glyndebourne stagings include the enchanting Ravel Double Bill, the stylish Béatrice et Bénédict, and most recently the award-winning Poulenc Double Bill – returns to direct an opera whose whimsical, sophisticated humour is perfectly allied to his own. Add in one of Strauss’s most voluptuously beautiful scores, music that shares its rich orchestral writing with Der Rosenkavalier and sprinkles an extra layer of vocal virtuosity on top, and it’s a perfect summer’s night out.
In this short video, tenor David Butt Philip discusses the musical power of Ariadne auf Naxos:
A great moment to look out for:
The Prima Donna may look down on Zerbinetta, but it’s the showgirl who delivers one of the opera’s most spectacular musical moments. Her aria ‘Großmächtige Prinzessin’ has been famously described as the show-stopping virtuoso coloratura star solo to end all showstopping virtuoso coloratura solos. And it’s not just a showcase of technical skill, it’s a mission-statement in music from a character whose philosophy is simple: nothing heals a broken heart quite like a new man…
Sitting right at the top of a soprano’s range – reaching up to a stratospheric top D – the 12-minute, multi-part aria is a sequence of mercurial mood-swings, following Zerbinetta’s darting thoughts. The opening recitative is followed by the lyrical ‘Noch glaub’ ich dem’, a florid arioso ‘So war es mit Pagliazzo’ (ending with a cadenza), and finally a fiendish rondo ‘Als ein Gott’, whose wriggling coloratura runs and leaps capture the flighty, flirty character of this pragmatic leading lady.
Cast and creative team:
Reunited after the success of their Poulenc Double Bill in 2022, Glyndebourne Music Director Robin Ticciati will conduct this new Laurent Pelly staging.
A starry international cast is led by American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Ariadne, returning to the Festival for the first time since her dazzling Marschallin in 2018’s Der Rosenkavalier. Also returning is British tenor and Glyndebourne regular David Butt Philip as Bacchus.
Samantha Hankey, winner of the inaugural Glyndebourne Cup, returns to the Festival as The Composer, with German coloratura soprano Alina Wunderlin as her charismatic nemesis Zerbinetta.
To find out more about production support for Festival 2026 click here
or contact our Director of Development, Helen McCarthy for an informal chat:
call 01273 013 308 or email helen.mccarthy@glyndebourne.com
