Organization

Singer

Soprano

Sylvia Schwartz

Arianna

Mezzo-soprano

Ann Hallenberg

Teseo

Emőke Baráth

Alceste

Romina Basso

Tauride

Contralto

Sonia Prina

Carilda

Bass

Johannes Weisser

Minos

Conductor

Alan Curtis

Il Sonno

MusikTheater an der Wien

Orchestra

Il Complesso Barocco

Italian

Arianna in Creta -  (Ariadne in Crete)

Vienna

Austria

Theater an der Wien

Ariadne in Crete

Approved

In his settings of mythological material, Georg Friedrich Handel also represented the power of the supernatural, which otherwise had disappeared from the opera of his time. In Arianna in Creta , the fight with the Minotaur plays a central role. The supposed Theban king's daughter Arianna lives as a hostage at the court of King Minos. Athens has to provide the Cretan king with seven virgins as food for the creature with a bull's head and human body. Teseo, son of the Athenian king, demands permission from Minos to fight the Minotaur in order to free Athens from the gruesome tribute. Arianna, who loves Teseo, is angry, but King Minos agrees to the fight. The fate of Ariadne already inspired Claudio Monteverdi to write the opera L'Ariannaof which only the famous lament has survived. Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal also continue their story in Ariadne auf Naxos . Handel's Arianna in Creta had to assert itself in 1734 against direct competition from the newly founded Opera of the Nobility, was successfully premiered on January 26th at King's Theater in London's Haymarket, played sixteen times and finally resumed at the Covent Garden Theater in November.

English

Ariadne in Crete by Händel, From (2013/2013), Conductor Alan Curtis, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues