Ariadne: The Mesmerising Sunday Times Bestselling Retelling of Ancient Greek Myth

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It's moments like these that remind me of the missed opportunity to really give a nuanced feminist slant to these myths. Saint takes the easy wins but seems incapable of stringing them all together into a grand theme or message. im really happy with this. it is a definite must read for fans of ‘circe’ and greek mythology retellings in general. Gaitanou’s production endeavours to capture the immediacy he sought in mixing singing and parlando speech in the Prologue by having it in a mix of English and German (with some Italian thrown in). We’re on a film sound stage where two movies are in production, one a serious treatment of the mythical story of the abandoned Ariadne, the other a burlesque-style comedy. Financial problems mean that both must be shot simultaneously, with a tight deadline because there’s going to be a firework display at the end of the day, too ( pictured above right: Elizabeth Llewellyn as Ariadne). Ariadne lives on the island of Crete with her controlling father Minos and her bull brother The Minotaur.

This is a story many people will be familiar with, thus Saint seems to take pleasure in playing with the reader’s expectations. There are many little details that appear to be foreshadowing, yet when the time comes Saint neatly sidesteps the anticipated event. For this reason, this review will avoid going into too much plot-specific detail, although it will assume that the broad strokes are so commonly written about that they can no longer be spoiled.

Church Times/Canterbury Press:

This is the 1916 version of the piece, the scenario adapted to position the Prologue (the first Act, essentially) in a 20 th century film studio (Fellini's, the programme book tells us), rather than a wealthy dwelling in the Vienna of the past. As an avid reader of Greek mythology I was so curious to see which myths of Ariadne Jennifer Saint would include. I’ve been especially curious about Ariadne and have read many different versions of her story and what happens to her. I was excited to delve into this book to see which ones the author would take inspiration from. In this respect the situation is not unlike the Hofmannsthal one, of two companies with two shows for a private patron having to put them on jointly to meet a similar time constraint: the “Maecenas” whose palatial home was the original setting doesn’t sing or speak, but here we see him as the studio boss, complete with entourage, though silent. The exploration of the darker side of the Dionysian cult was quite good but I felt the ending was incredibly rushed and the chance to show Perseus as a completely different kind of hero was lost. Because Saint did a great job of characterising the male villains. We'd had the cruel ruler Minos, the ladies man and fame hound Theseus, then the immortal reveller Dionysus, followed by the austere horse lover Hippolytus (less a villain, more a simpleton), it was a chance for us to finally get a middle of the road hero who was strong but also a good ruler. I know Saint tried to imply that Perseus and Ariadne unravelled all of that with a single glance but I don't think it worked. I also think the handling of the final showdown was poor. Dionysus is supposed to be welcomed to the city after the death of Ariadne through a deal brokered by Hermes. I feel like that would have been a strong point to make again about how women are the collateral damage in so many of these Greek myths but Saint didn't seem to want to take that route. This intricately plotted novel draws on a number of Greek myths, chief among them those found in Aeschylus’s Oresteia. It is the story of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, beginning with the brutal sacrifice of their 16-year-old daughter, Iphigenia. A deeply human tale of a warring family, the story is steeped in violence and cruelty but Tóibín brings empathy and depth to the characters, offering a nuanced understanding of their anger, fear, hatred and guilt.

Ariadne is a story of love and betrayal and the ways in which women fall victim to the egos of the men in their lives. It’s also a story of sisterhood. This is the year of the staircase. Up and down they go in Glyndebourne’s new Don Giovanni. Down and up they go in the Royal Opera House’s Il Trovatore. While first-nighters were enjoying Ariadne, other music-lovers were glued to the final of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Congratulations to its overall winner, the sumptuous Italian bass Adolfo Corrado. If he wants a career in opera, I hope he’s got good knees. the writing in this is also lovely. not quite on the level of madeline miller (an impossibly high standard, tbh), but still has moments of beauty. there are quite a few moments of characters recounting tales, which reminded me so much of traditional greek oral storytelling, so that was nice to see. i also think this story offers a great commentary on the role women play in the world of men and gods and gives ariadne (as well as her sister) a much deserved voice. Strauss makes use of the prologue to explain the unlikely premise for the opera that will follow. A young composer and his music master have been commissioned to write an opera to be premiered this evening. The patron is concerned that his entertainment programme will run too long so he decides just before curtain up that the serious opera should be played with the Italian comedy (due to follow it) simultaneously. The host generously leaves it to the artists to work out how to do this. Ensemble, Ariadne auf Naxos, Garsington Clive Barda 2023Guest artists are equally well fitted. Hanna Hipp makes a powerful fist of The Composer ( pictured left), which is a soprano trouser role and carries some musical weight (remember this is Richard Strauss, who took these things seriously even when in comedy mode). She sang “You Venus’ boy” (Du Venus’ Sohn) with beautiful, gently floated tone, and rose to real heights for her later hymn to “the sacred art” of music (Sein wir wieder gut).Elizabeth Llewellyn, also debuting with Opera North, was the Prima Donna and acted in appropriate style: her big scena was still to come, of course.I wondered whether there was symbolism in the allocation of English or German, or both, to different characters, and concluded that there was no more to it than the idea of a film set as a multi-lingual environment: others may see more, perhaps. It was good to see the other sides of Dionysus as well. I liked both Phaedra’s and Ariadne’s point of views. For fans of Circe by Madeline Miller. For readers who wanted The Silence of the Girls to ACTUALLY center the women in Greek mythology... I have a book that should go on your TBR this spring! Ariadne is a stunning debut that recounts the story of Ariadne, not as a footnote to tales of heroic men, but rather as the heroine of her own, often tragic story.

Even with two clown consultants on board, Team Vaudeville’s four stooges don’t get quite the same chance to shine. A stage-upon-the-stage hems them in, and their props are rather restrained. Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel. There are stellar vocal performances across the board. The intimate Garsington auditorium combined with the scaled down orchestra really allows the singers to shine. The prologue is dominated by the Composer (Polly Leech) who states he would rather burn his opera than have it besmirched by lowly harlequins (immediately before falling in love with one of them). Leech and Jennifer France’s Zerbinetta share a truly heartfelt moment that is rather touching before Zerbinetta dons her wig and costume and the Composer realises the extent of the compromise he’s made. Polly Leech and Jennifer France in Ariadne auf Naxos, Garsington Clive Barda 2023 I will talk about events in the novel without spoilers aside from things that line up with the original myths and, thus, are not spoilers because you can look it up on Wikipedia or Theoi . com or if you truly want to know nothing about the events of the myth or this book, maybe skip my review.

The plot unfolds with Ariadne choosing the man of her dreams over her family and becomes a condemned exile in Naxos. However, despite her sacrifice Ariadne finds her life dramatically reversed when she awakens to the knowledge that she has been abandoned by Theseus who then marries Phaedra years later. Alone in Nexus, Ariadne learns to live of the land as nature becomes her only friend. She is appalled with the cruelty her father metes out towards the Athenians in demanding that Athens send across fourteen young men and women to be That’s a really interesting point. I had never thought about it. We discussed Cosi in studio rehearsals but not as clearly as you’ve put it. I guess Despina and Fiordiligi do represent these two attitudes to love and men. Ariadne for me is a step ahead of Fiordiligi and represents an ideal, a concept. Zerbinetta on the other hand is real, human, with a conflicted sense of self. I find the character of Zerbinetta fascinating. She is a complex character with considerable human appeal, whilst Ariadne is more a symbol that appeals to the intellect. Zerbinetta is the only one who has the same name in both acts, and it isn’t a traditional commedia dell’arte character, it is who she is. She is Zerbinetta, a woman playing a role that’s expected of her, the only one in the piece where performer and character are meant to be one. If we believe what she says in her duet with the composer at the end of the prologue to be true, how does this impact her in the opera when she comes face to face with the character of Ariadne? It was the woman, always the women, be they helpless serving girls or princesses, who paid the price. Cursed to roam the land without refuge, transformed into a shambling bear or lowing cow, or burned to ashes by the vengeful white armed goddess."

B runo Ravella has become director of choice for Strauss at Garsington Opera, it would seem, where his new staging of Ariadne auf Naxos follows his benchmark Intermezzo of 2015 and his elegant Rosenkavalier two years ago. All three have revealed a fine understanding of the complexities of Strauss’s music and dramaturgy. His Ariadne, however, is more radical than its predecessors, a considered, if at times drastic rethink of an ambivalent even problematic work. The theatrical sparseness also means that music and emotion really hit home. Romaniw is an outstanding Ariadne, singing with great depth of feeling and an extraordinary richness of tone over the role’s wide range, her low notes as sumptuous as her upper register is thrilling. France, in her second UK Zerbinetta this year, is also excellent, her coloratura wonderfully accurate and gleaming. Kim sang handsomely with a telling, subtle use of dynamics. Leech’s Composer is bright-voiced, passionate and superbly acted. In the pit, the Philharmonia play quite wonderfully for Mark Wigglesworth, whose conducting is remarkable in its finesse, intensity and emotional depth. This book especially focused on the women in Greek mythology, and so many parallels and foreshadowing was told throughout this book; through Scylla, Medusa and Pasiphae’s stories. This book explored how both of the sisters survived in circumstances that they weren’t prepared for, how they are treated as a commodity, and punished for men’s actions. This book emphasised how women have been silenced in myths and the unfairness of women’s positions in societies, but it also highlights how these women find strength, in solitude or through power, or with other women. I loved the twist on the Greek heroes. Theseus is an asshole and I loved hating on him. I enjoyed all the different elements and characters, including Daedalus and Icarus. But everything changes when she leaves with Theseus and he betrays her by abandoning her on an island to die. But Ariadne’s story does not end here.These stories are falling into the hands of a very diverse array of authors at the moment, and that’s giving them a new life, ” agreed Jeffs, pointing to books from Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad to more recent works by Madeline Miller, Monique Roffey and Natalie Haynes. “And maybe in difficult times, that freshness and that inspiration, and just a really good story, is something we yearn for.” Saint's enchanting debut retells the myth of the minotaur through the eyes of Ariadne... As the women navigate their changing positions of power, they court disaster at the hands of both gods and men. Saint expertly highlights how often the women of this world pay the price for the actions of the men around them. Lovers of mythology should snap this up.' - Publishers Weekly And yes, go. Kim is a powerful new voice which will be heard in bigger houses and Romaniw’s golden timbre is always a joy. France will give the red kites something to think about with her top E (that’s the E above the A that most of us amateur sopranos can manage with a fair wind). Mark Wigglesworth conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in this shimmering score.