The opera was originally conceived as a 30-minute divertissement to be performed at the end of Hofmannsthal's adaptation of Molière's play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Besides the opera, Strauss provided incidental music to be performed during the play. In the end, the opera occupied ninety minutes, and the performance of play plus opera occupied over six hours. It was first performed at the Hoftheater Stuttgart on 25 October 1912. The director was Max Reinhardt. The combination of the play and opera proved to be unsatisfactory to the audience: those who had come to hear the opera resented having to wait until the play finished.

Librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Date of composition 1912 (revised in 1916)
Premiered 1912, October 25th in Stuttgart, Germany
First published 1912
Type Opera
Catalogue TrV 228
Approx. duration 160 minutes
Spoken language German
Instruments Orchestra
Chorus/Choir
Voice (Soprano) - The prima donna/Ariadne
Voice (Tenor) - The tenor/Bacchus
Voice (Soprano) - Coloratura ; Zerbinetta
Voice (Baritone) - Harlequin, a player
Voice (Tenor) - Scaramuccio, a player
Voice (Bass) - Truffaldino, a player
Voice (Tenor) - Brighella, a player
Voice (Soprano) - The composer
Voice (Baritone) - His music master
Voice (Tenor) - The dancing master
Voice (Baritone) - A wigmaker
Voice (Bass) - A lackey
Voice (Tenor) - An officer
Narrator, Recitant, Speaker - The Major-Domo
Voice (Soprano) - Naiad, a nymph
Voice (Contralto) - Dryad, a nymph
Voice (Soprano) - Echo, a nymph
In listings Famous Works
Autotranslations beta Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos, TrV 228
Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos, TrV 228
Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos, TrV 228