Victorian Opera's 2009 Season continues with the much-loved operatic tour-de-force by Richard Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos.

An opera about opera, Ariadne auf Naxos features three dazzling female characters performed by Melbourne international dramatic soprano Elizabeth Stannard in the role of Ariadne, Ballarat's Jacqueline Dark as The Composer, and introducing Ireni Utley singing the virtuosic coloratura of Zerbinetta. The heroic role of Bacchus will be performed by Canadian dramatic tenor John Mac Master, who recently underwent one of the stage's baptisms by fire when he stepped up from understudy to perform Wagner's Tristan for New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Ariadne auf Naxos sets the idealism of art against the joy of popular entertainment and resolves this conflict with amusing irony. Its music is ravishing, its comic elements charming, and its plot amusing - and whatever happens, the show must go on! Strauss's orchestrations are full of texture and colour and Hugo von Hofmannsthall's libretto full of wit and intelligence.

Sung in German with English surtitles