Comedy meets Opera head on in Richard Strauss’s opera within an opera. Unable to delay the after dinner fireworks, Burlesque and Opera entertainments must combine their efforts and perform together.

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Comedy meets Opera head on in Richard Strauss’s opera within an opera. Unable to delay the after dinner fireworks, Burlesque and Opera entertainments must combine their efforts and perform together.   

Ariadne auf Naxos opens backstage before a performance for the wealthiest man in Vienna. Two troupes will perform; one a classical opera by a new composer, the other an Italian buffo commedia dell’arte troupe. At the last minute, they are told the performances will happen simultaneously, and the performers scramble to attempt to fit the two completely opposite performances together. Comedically intertwined, the opera buffa meets opera seria, as the Tenor and the Prima Donna fight for the limelight.

The exhilarating soprano Lise Davidsen brings one of her signature roles to the Met for the first time as the mythological Greek heroine of Strauss’s enchanting masterpiece.

The outstanding cast also features mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as the Composer of the opera-within-an-opera around which the plot revolves, with soprano Brenda Rae as the spirited comedienne Zerbinetta, tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Ariadne’s lover, the god Bacchus, and Sir Thomas Allen as the Major-Domo.

Marek Janowski, chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic, conducts.

Ariadne auf Naxos is sung in German with English subtitles.

A screening of the broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera 2021-22 Season in New York.

Please Note: the dates of Metropolitan Opera productions may be subject to change.

Duration 3 hours, including 1 interval

Click here to view our Met Opera Season


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