100 Great Operas and Their Stories: Act-By-Act Synopses by Henry W. Simon Read Free Book Online Page B

claiming that she wishes to say farewell to her youth, to all the things that made up her girlhood. Together with an overdressed coquette known as the “Fiakermilli” (who sings her a brilliant polka) Arabella is the cynosure of all eyes. She bids farewell to each of three noble suitors, but the fourth suitor, Matteo, is desperate. Zdenka, still disguised as a boy, fears that her loved one may commit suicide, as he has threatened. She therefore presents him a key, with the implication that it comes from Arabella; and she says definitely that it will admit him to the room of the one who sent it. Mandryka, unfortunately, overhears this conversation, and he believes that Arabella is already planning to betray him. Cynically he calls for wine and gaiety; he flirts with the Fiakermilli; he invites the coachman to drink champagne; and at the end of the act he leaves angrily for his hotel.
    ACT III
    Back at the hotel Matteo discovers he has been tricked. His rendezvous has been with Zdenka, not with Arabella. But when he sees Zdenka—now with her hair down, a beautiful girl, and one who really loves him—he is happy. He forgets Arabella.
    As for Mandryka and Arabella—well, that misunderstanding is now also cleared up. She offers him a drink. If he smashes the glass, that is a symbol of their engagement. Of course, he does smash it; of course, he takes her in his arms; and of course, they kiss. As the curtain goes down, she breaks away from him and trips up to her room. Tomorrow is another day.

ARIADNE AUF NAXOS
    (Ariadne on Naxos)
    Opera in prologue and one act by Richard
Strauss with libretto in German by Hugo von
Hofmannsthal
    CHARACTERS IN THE PROLOGUE
THE MAJOR-DOMO
Speaking Role
MUSIC MASTER
Baritone
THE COMPOSER
Soprano
THE TENOR (later Bacchus)
Tenor
AN OFFICER
Tenor
THE DANCING MASTER
Tenor
THE WIGMAKER
Bass
A LACKEY
Bass
ZERBINETTA
Soprano
PRIMA DONNA (later Ariadne)
Soprano
HARLEQUIN
Baritone
SCARAMUCCIO
Tenor
TRUFFALDINO
Bass
BRIGHELLA
Tenor
    CHARACTERS IN THE OPERA
ARIADNE
Soprano
BACCHUS
Tenor
Three nymphs
    NAIAD
Soprano
    DRYAD
Contralto
    ECHO
Soprano
ZERBINETTA
Soprano
HARLEQUIN
Baritone
SCARAMUCCIO
Tenor
TRUFFALDINO
Bass
BRIGHELLA
Tenor
    Time: 18th century
    Place: Vienna
    First performance in original version at Stuttgart, October 25, 1912
    First performance in “new” version at Vienna, October 1916
         Ariadne auf Naxos , partly classical mythology, partly commedia dell’arte , and partly eighteenth-century Viennese satire, was first thought of, by Strauss and Von Hofmannsthal, as a little gift. The gift was for Max Reinhardt, the great stage director, who had stepped in and saved the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier . In its original version Ariadne was intended to be the special entertainment given by Monsieur Jourdain for his guests in the Molière comedy Le bourgeois gentilhomme . So that the evening would not be too long, a good half of Molière had to be sacrificed. The resulting entertainment was, nevertheless, still very long, rather inconclusive in its effect, and very expensive to put on. It required, not only a whole opera company, but a whole dramatic company as well.
    At any rate, the mixture was not considered successful, wherefore Molière was dropped completely, a prologue was written and composed, and the opera slightly changed. It is this revised version that is generally given today and described in the following paragraphs.

PROLOGUE
    The prologue takes the place of the Molière story, but the scene is now in the home of a very wealthy Viennese bourgeois gentleman of the eighteenth century. This anonymous gentleman is planning an elaborate entertainment for his guests, and the various artists involved are having troubles backstage. For instance, immediately after the orchestral prelude, a pompous major-domo tells the Music Master that a comedy is to follow the opera. And when the Music Master has to tell this to his pupil and protégé, the Composer, that young