Classical
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Ariadne auf Naxos For all its frivolity and ebullience-which is the aspect of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos that Seattle Opera is selling the hardest for its upcoming production-it cost its composer, and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, years of grueling and contentious labor. The latter’s original comic concept, the onstage clash of a tragic Greek-myth opera performance and a commedia dell’arte troupe-so avant, so meta-was itself stuffed, like some giant theatrical turducken, into his adaptation of Moliere’s play Le bourgeois gentilhomme. (One of Moliere’s characters presents the two-operas-in-one as an entertainment in his home, or so goes the contrived premise.) Strauss wrote a great deal of music for this hybrid: incidental music for the reworked Moliere plus the complete 90-minute double opera. When this proved less than a hit, mainly because it made for an evening of Wagnerian length, Strauss and Hofmannsthal had to detach what they had so painstakingly spliced together, adding a new prologue to the opera (depicting the manic backstage preparations) so it could stand on its own. Happily for Strauss, though, this overelaborate concept called for two very different styles of music, both of which he excelled at: elegant, sparkling 18th-century pastiche to evoke the commedia players; and soaring, opulent music for his tragic heroine Ariadne. Seattle Opera revives its 2004 production-including, memorably, onstage fireworks at the climax. GAVIN BORCHERT 7:30 p.m. Wed. & Sat., plus 7:30 p.m. Fri., May 15. Ends May 16. [See Gavin’s <a href=”http://www.seattleweekly.com/arts/958286-129/ariadne-auf-naxos-richard-strauss-meta-opera” target=”_blank”>review</a>.] McCaw Hall (Seattle Center), 321 Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98109 $25 and up Saturday, May 16, 2015, 7:30pm
Puget Sound Symphony Shostakovich, Wagner, and Dvorak’s Seventh. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle, WA 98101 $5-$8 Saturday, May 16, 2015, 7:30pm
Universal Language Project To complement Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, Jovino Santos Neto has written Saci-a Brazilian Folktale, also for seven musicians and narrator. 8 p.m. Fri., May 15-Sat., May 16. Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122 $10-$25 Saturday, May 16, 2015, 8pm
Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, May 17, 2015, 9:30pm
Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, May 24, 2015, 9:30pm
Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, May 31, 2015, 9:30pm
Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, June 7, 2015, 9:30pm
Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, June 14, 2015, 9:30pm
