In Detail

Strauss’s operas cover a wide spectrum of styles, from tragic and heroic to comic and expansive to poignantly intimate. In this ingenious quasi–chamber opera, the composer hit on a formula that allowed him to express several aspects of operatic storytelling in a single work, especially in the latter half, an opera-within-an-opera in which the practical flirtatiousness of the comedienne Zerbinetta contrasts with the grand sentiments of the title diva.

The outstanding cast for this production 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 Zerbinetta and tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Ariadne’s lover, the god Bacchus, in this witty production by Elijah Moshinsky. Marek Janowski conducts.

An opera in 2 Acts sung in German with English subtitles.
World premiere: Hoftheater, Stuttgart, 1912 (original version); Hofoper, Vienna, 1916 (revised version).

180m approx with 40m interval

Tickets £20
(Friends/Students £17.50