Released December 2021 • Linn

Ariadne auf Naxos

For the last recording of the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival series, Lothar Koenigs conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in a concert performance of Richard Strauss’s comedy Ariadne auf Naxos with a specially selected cast. 

It is the party to end all parties. But two entertainments have been double-booked to mark the evening’s climax – a serious opera and a slapstick comedy. The star soprano is throwing a tantrum and the staff are hiding the chaos from the boss. There is only one solution: perform both shows at the same time. As an opera within an opera and as a sly commentary on the struggles between high culture and low entertainment, Strauss’s comic creation was far ahead of its time. Bursting with life, vigour and humour, it is also an opera that shows you can rediscover love in even the most unexpected places.