Strauss: Ariadne Auf Naxos (Daniel Harding) (2012)

The original, longer version of the opera was played, but instead of Hofmannsthal’s adaptation of Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Bechtolf has devised a fascinating entertainment that incorporates drama, most of Strauss’s delectable score, and dance. It incorporates elements of Molière’s play and text from the later prologue, with which he and Strauss salvaged their hybrid flop to produce the masterpiece we know today. In the abstract, it might sound rarefied, but in the theatre, it proved entrancing.