"Ariadne on Naxos" - two crazy stories OR grapes, wine, fertility, ectasy, and insanity

We continue to dip into the archives of 2018, here in early November, the evening of a fun day en femme.

 

My regular readers know that I like to take Franziska out to cultural events. And one of the arguments to do so is the opportunity to dress up. I don’t know if you have ever gone out shopping or hiking in an LBD. Franziska dresses for the occasion and as she likes to dress up, we need to find the fitting occasions. Opera is one of them. And some of you might have read my article on CDH on this very topic.

 

In my last posting, I had covered the daytime of Franziska’s November 2018 day out and about. After a brief stop at home to freshen up and to change into the evening outfit, Franziska headed to the Frankfurt opera house for Richard Strauss’s “Ariadne on Naxos.” Naxos or Νάξος or Náxia is a Greek island that, apparently, is important in the story of Ariadne, the goddess of love and fertility in Cretan mythology and daughter of Cretan King Minos.

 

Let’s very briefly cover her story, just to make sure that the educational mission of this blog is met. Theseus, son of Aegeus, King of Attica, sails to the island of Crete to kill the Minotaur, a being with human body and the head of a Taurus, who is being held in a labyrinth, designed by Daedalus on behalf of King Minos. Theseus wants to rid Athens of the requirement from King Minus to provide seven virgins and seven younglings every year to be sacrificed to the Minotaur.

On Crete, Theseus meets Ariadne, who instantly falls in love with him and helps him to kill the Minotaur. With the help of Daedalus, a brilliant inventor, technical expert, and master builder = the engineer in this story – Ariadne helps Theseus to find back out of the labyrinth by using a ball of yarn, which will henceforth be known as Ariadne’s thread. They flee from Crete by ship when Theseus finds out that Ariadne is already promised to Dionysos (also known as Bacchus), the Greek god of grapes, wine, fertility, ecstasy, and insanity, and leaves her behind on the desert island of Naxos. 

Theseus sails home to Athens, forgetting that he promised his father to return with white sails if he succeeded at killing the Minotaur. King Aegeus sees the black sails on the horizon and jumps from a cliff, drowning himself to death; hence the name Aegean Sea. Dionysos finds Ariadne on Naxos, rescues her from depression and loneliness and marries her. Happy end.

The opera “Ariadne on Naxos” by Richard Strauss touches on Ariadne’s fate only as a side story. The opera is an antagonism between serious music and serene music, a fight classy vs. vulgar, Ariadne’s party on one side and the cheerful singer Zerbinetta and her clan from 17^th century Vienna on the other side. Both musical companies are asked to perform simultaneously rather than consecutively at a private festivity, due to a delay in dinner plans. Without preparatory knowledge of the plot, you will have little chance to follow the story. You better do your homework if you ever endeavor to see this opera, en femme or in drab.

Let’s go to the pictures!

 

Portrait of the evening

I love – by the way – when a coat is longer than the dress or skirt beneath. I don’t know why, but I think it is really hot. And if my memory does not fail me, I think that I was wearing a pantyhose with seam.

At the Frankfurt opera house before the show

In the foyer during intermission

Pro tip: pick a color scheme and stick with it

On the way home at the subway station, I received a very nice compliment from one of the opera musicians. He was a cute middle-aged guy, a little pudgy, carrying his string instrument in a case and he said to me that I looked great, while we were both standing at the platform next to each other, waiting for the subway.