The composer is stressed. His little opera ensemble is about to perform Ariadne auf Naxos, a grandiose opera of his own making, at the home of a wealthy man. But the very same evening a troupe of players led by the colourful Zerbinetta will also perform, and the two ensembles fight over who is to go first. The threat of cuts is driving the earnest composer to near breakdown. This is the comic prologue to the opera about Ariadne that the audience will be attending after the intermission. After Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier, the composer Richard Strauss and the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal were opera’s foremost duo in the first decades of the 20th century. They chose to follow up the two successes with a challenging experiment: an opera about an opera and a story about artistic creation. Ariadne auf Naxos is metafiction in its most enjoyable form, an opera that makes the audience aware of its own role in an entertaining way.

At her wedding reception, the beautiful but depressed Justine spots a red star in the sky. It is the planet Melancholia, which is on a collision course with Earth. The bridegroom Michael tries to calm her down with his love, her mother Gaby poisons her with her darkness, and her sister Claire attempts to rescue her with her solicitude. But no-one can stop the mysterious forces ignited within Justine. And Melancholia gets closer and closer…