Ariadne à deux from Virgin Classics and Chandos
Two new recordings of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos have been released by Virgin Classics (on DVD) and Chandos (on CD).
Already issued in its Opera in English series with Christine Brewer in the title role, Gillian Keith as Zerbinetta and contributions by Alice Coote (The Composer), Alan Opie (Music Master) and Robert Dean Smith (Bacchus), the Chandos recording features the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong. Christopher Cowell provides the English translation of Hugo von Hofmannstahl’s libretto. The two-disc set also includes a performance of the Op.60 Le Bourgeois gentilhomme Suite.
The Virgin Classics DVD features a Metropolitan Opera performance from 2003 with Deborah Voigt as Ariadne – a breakthrough role for the soprano following performances in Boston, MA in 1991 – and Natalie Dessay reprising one of her own signature roles, Zerbinetta. The cast also includes Susanne Mentzer, Nathan Gunn and Richard Margison, with the Met’s music director James Levine conducting.
Both recordings are already available internationally, with Virgin Classics to release its DVD in the United States on September 28.
