Ariane

The subject of Ariadne was widely-used in opera during the Baroque and early Classical periods and then in the 20th century. The Massenet-Mendès version is one of very few which depicts the heroine and Theseus on Crete and then on Naxos. Massenet was publicly happy with his collaboration with Mendès, but his biographer claims that he disliked his librettist, whose words have been condemned by many critics; for example "Ariane suffers from a long, heavy libretto in the French Classical tradition by Catulle Mendès that contains much garlanded verse but little in the way of credible emotional realism". At the head of the score, Mendès offers quotes from his inspiration: Ovid, Racine and Thomas Corneille. Although not a proper sequel, as Ariane dies in both pieces, Massenet's later opera, Bacchus is a companion to Ariane, containing a number of common characters and having the same librettist. Ariane has never maintained popularity and belongs to Massenet's later works which are largely neglected. The piece did, however, inspire this quote from French composer Gabriel Fauré: "Ariane, a noble, great and moving work…" The opera was performed during Massenet's life-time, then was dropped from the repertoire, receiving only limited revivals in 1937 (21 February and 27 August 1937) at the Paris Opéra. The 1937 cast had Germaine Lubin in the title role, Georges Thill as Thésée, Maryse Ferrer as Phèdre, Ketty Lapeyrette as Perséphone, with Martial Singher also in the cast, conducted b…

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