ARIADNE AUF NAXOS
opera by Richard Strauss
Theater Bremen
WORLD PREMIERE January 2023
WORLD PREMIERE January 2023
Conductor Stefan Klingele
Director Frank Hilbrich
Stage Sebastian Hannak
Costumes Gabriele Rupprecht
Lighting Christian Kemmetmüller
Dramaturgy Frederike Krüger
Stage Sebastian Hannak
Costumes Gabriele Rupprecht
Lighting Christian Kemmetmüller
Dramaturgy Frederike Krüger
Ariadne auf Naxos, one of Richard Strauss´ and Hugo von Hofmansthals´ masterpieces about the genre of theatre itself, shows the creation of an opera. A young composer is severely disturbed during the creation of his work- just shortly before its world premiere. Enraged by the request of changing his opera and to combine it with a comedy, in an act of refusal he destroys his work rather than to accept the requested compromise. He burns the score. Witnessing an artist that is not willing to accept compromises, I feel this uncompromising superpower is as much a powerful statement as it is an unresolvable conflict, which is why i find the stage to be such an excellent space for it.
So i based my scenography on the act of creation. In the beginning, a piano symbolizes this creation, and by adding more and more pianos in new constellations, i want to convey the madness which, from the composer's point of view, is weighing down on him and his work. After he has burned his work, in the second part of the opera, different images of grief emerge from the ashes of the prelude in an ongoing transformation on the turning stage, all arranged with pianos. Until at the end, on a round shape made of pianos, there might be an emergant new art form that the composer did create?
