Strauss's Ariadne Returns to Rome Stripped of Viennese Splendor

After 35 years, Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (1912) returns to the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in a production by director David Hermann that eliminates the opulent Viennese salon. The prologue is set in a claustrophobic backstage corridor with neon lighting, transforming the conflict between Opera Seria and Commedia dell'arte into a struggle for survival under cultural bureaucracy. Soprano Axelle Fanyo, a woman of color, plays Ariadne as an act of cultural reappropriation, her presence challenging the Eurocentric canon. The character Zerbinetta embodies pragmatic survival, while Bacchus appears in jeans, demythologized. In the finale, Bacchus flees, denying the transformative encounter and leaving Ariadne alone. The production, echoing Hermann's earlier Inferno (2021) by Lucia Ronchetti, questions the sustainability of myth and salvation through the other. The review was published on Artribune by Lorenzo Pompeo.