Sein wir wieder gut… Musik ist eine heilige Kunst from Ariadne auf Naxos

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Sein wir wieder gut… Musik ist eine heilige Kunst from Ariadne auf Naxos

In the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos the young (soprano) composer of the first part of a double bill, an opera seria and an opera buffa, finds to his horror that the two items are to be performed not consecutively but, to save time, simultaneously. His righteous indignation that his high-flown art is to be brought down to earth by being mixed up with low comedy is, however, reversed by the seductive persuasion of the leader of the commedia dell’arte troupe Zerbinetta. In Sein wir wieder gut the composer expresses his new-found confidence that he can make the situation work and, in Musik ist eine heilige Kunst delivers an ecstatic hymn in praise of music – only to be interrupted, much to his dismay, by the noisy entry of the comedians.