Nothing is more dangerous than a curveball. Put two mirrors face to face, and the dizziness takes you. Before this glimpse of the infinite, the markers fly by. Where are the true, the false? Fiction, reality? We wonder especially if there is not a bridge between two worlds so porous, so close to one another. This bridge, Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hoffmannstahl the borrow the most beautiful way, in Ariadne auf Naxos .

building on the success of the Knight rose , created in 1911 and led to very soon make the world tour, the composer and his librettist decide to turn back to the great orchestra of wagner, and the melody continues, in order to regain the lightness of the operas of the time spent as well as they are conceived in the Eighteenth century. It is not a desire for a retrograde, but a kind of pastiche-homage, less nostalgic than ironic, the spirit of «buffa» by the time mozart. They imagine a plot in two time: first act, the preparation of a show; the second act, the show itself.

Between fantasy and reality

The initial version of this work, created in 1912, was first staged a show mimicked the le Bourgeois gentilhomme of Molière; it is the home of Mr. Jordan that took place on the second act, which was a piece of lyrical around the mythological episode of Ariadne auf Naxos . But, by 1916, the work is entirely recast, and the first act redesigned. Forget Molière: we’re now in the home of a rich bourgeois imaginary, and the characters of the first act will be embodied in the second, from hack (or beautify) the action ancient. The border between fantasy and reality is here constantly bullied, which makes it a wonder for the mind and the senses.

» READ ALSO – the Festival of Aix-en-Provence: Katie Mitchell lost Ariadne auf Naxos

After an exciting and beautiful Pelléas et Mélisande in Aix three years ago, the great set designer English Katie Mitchell embarked for the festival of the provence, in Ariadne auf Naxos . The result has, it seems, left some wary, who have pointed to imbalances in the staging, for a work which should be more lightweight than a ballet.

» READ ALSO – A new life for Pelléas et Mélisande

We can judge on piece with this revival at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, as it should be see, because Ariadne is a work that is too rare to be the economy. Among a very international, we will post the Ariane Camilla Nylund, the Bacchus (Roberto Sacca, Zerbinette, Olga Pudova (which replaces Sabine Devieilhe, who sang in the production aix), the composer of Kate Lindsey and the music teacher Jean-Sébastien Bou. Finally, the chamber Orchestra of Paris should regain the intimacy of mozart in this exquisite work, under the baton always fine and attentive of Jérémie Rohrer.

«Ariadne auf Naxos». The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. 15, avenue Montaigne in paris (Viii). Tel.: 01 49 52 50 50. Dates: from 21 to 30 march at 19: 30. Places: 5 at 145 €.

Book your tickets for «Ariadne auf Naxos» at the TEC on www.ticketac.com