PACIFIC OPERA VICTORIA Presents:

ARIADNE AUF NAXOS

Music by Richard Strauss
Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
February 13, 15, 21, 2014, at 8 pm
Matinée February 23 at 2:30 pm
In German with English Surtitles

The richest man in Vienna is having a party. His guests will be treated to a new opera – the tragedy of the jilted Ariadne – followed by a burlesque farce, The Fickle Zerbinetta and Her Four Lovers. When dinner runs late, the patron orders that both works be staged simultaneously.

What follows is a musical class war as the players perform a quirky mashup of high-minded opera and earthy comedy. Strauss has a field day with melody, tossing off playful roulades and sizzling coloratura, unveiling a kaleidoscope of lush orchestral textures and colours.

A cockeyed take on art, love, and fidelity, Ariadne auf Naxos is at once divinely comic and profoundly enchanting.

CAST

• CONDUCTOR Timothy Vernon
• DIRECTOR Oriol Tomas
• DESIGNER Ian Rye
• LIGHTING DESIGNER Kimberly Purtell

• COMPOSER Arminè Kassabian
• ZERBINETTA Suzanne Rigden
• ARIADNE Colleen Skull
• BACCHUS Roger Honeywell
• MAJOR DOMO J. Patrick Raftery
• MUSIC MASTER Bruce Kelly
• HARLEQUIN John Brancy
• SCARAMUCCIO Riccardo Iannello
• TRUFFALDINO Neil Craighead
• BRIGHELLA James McLennan
• DANCING MASTER Joseph Schnurr
• NAIAD Virginia Hatfield
• DRYAD Aidan Ferguson
• ECHO Eve-Lyn de la Haye

Pacific Opera Victoria | 1815 Blanshard Street, Suite 500 | Victoria, BC V8T 5A4