The Attraction of Opposites

The operas of Richard Strauss tend to gravitate toward opposite poles: at one extreme, there are the mythological high dramas of Salome, Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten, and at the other, the refined domestic comedies of Arabella, Rosenkavalier and Capriccio. Only in Ariadne auf Naxos do we find the two together, and even then they are not quite allowed to co-exist. Indeed the convoluted genesis of the opera – the Ariadne section was written to accompany Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s reworking of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, but was transformed into a standalone work with the addition of a prologue – can make the work seem more like an indivisible double bill than a unified opera. Although the new production of Ariadne at the Staatsoper Berlin – directed with insight, intelligence and restraint by Hans Neuenfels – made some attempt to connect…