Ariane (Martinů)

Ariane is a one-act opera by Bohuslav Martinů to a French libretto by the composer drawn from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th acts of the 1943 play by Georges Neveux, Le Voyage de Thésée, (who had supplied the text to the composer's earlier opera Julietta).

Martinů composed Ariane in 1958 whilst working on his final opera, The Greek Passion – he described it in a letter to his family as 'taking a rest' from the larger work. The composition took just over a month. The bravura style of the writing for Ariadne reflects Martinů's admiration of Maria Callas. The opera is in a straightforward lyrical style with deliberate references to the operas of Monteverdi and other early composers.

Grove describes the music as being in a "warm, mainly tonal lyricism", at times "enlivened by neo-Baroque rhythmic patterns".

The first performance took place in 1961 at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, as the centre-piece of a triple-bill with Mahagonny by Brecht and Weill and Der Analphabet by Ivo Lhotka-Kalinski, two years after the composer's death.

The Czech premiere took place on 23 October 1962 in Brno alongside Ariadne pieces by Claudio Monteverdi and Jiri Antonin Benda, conducted by Richard Tyn, with Miriam Šupurkovská in the title role. In September that year the opera was broadcast live radio on Czechoslovak Radio Brno, conducted by Frantisek Jilek, with Cecilie Strádalová.

The Russian premiere was in Moscow in March 2016, conducted by Maria Maksimchuk.

The story is a surrealist version of the myth of Theseus, Ariadne, and the Minotaur.

In this version of the myth, Minotaur and Theseus looks alike - and Theseus discerns part of his own personality in the monster; by killing it he destroys his love for Ariadne.

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Wikipedia