BEMF Recordings
Conradi: Ariadne
2007 GRAMMY Nominee!
First performed to extraordinary critical and public acclaim as the fully-staged operatic centerpiece of the 2003 Boston Early Music Festival & Exhibition, Johann Georg Conradi’s Ariadne was recorded in Bremen, Germany in July of 2004 at the studio of Radio Bremen, with the original cast and released by the CPO label for the June 2005 Festival and worldwide on the Naxos label immediately thereafter. BEMF's first opera recording is led by Artistic Co-Directors Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs and features a cast headlined by Karina Gauvin in the title role.
Ariadne, was written by the German composer Johann George Conradi and is the earliest surviving opera score from the Hamburg Opera House. Though popular with audiences and critics for several decades after its debut, the Ariadne manuscript was lost in the 1740s and the piece was virtually forgotten until 1972, when the distinguished musicologist George Buelow discovered it in the Library of Congress. BEMF’s 2003 production was the first in more than 250 years.
Conradi’s highly dramatic setting of Christian Postel’s wonderful German libretto reveals a stylishness and expressivity both fresh to our ears and instantly engaging. The labrynthine plot emerges from the colorful story of Theseus and the Minotaur. It features a love triangle, a daring escape, a mad scene, hilarious comic ribaldry, and opulent pageantry.
Critical Acclaim
2007 GRAMMY Award Nominee – Best Opera Recording
“Hugely enjoyable.”