Director Katharina Thoma sets Richard Strauss’s comedy in a country house in the South Downs (a surrogate for Glyndebourne), immediately before and during the Second World War. The librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthals’ conceit – that a hapless young composer has to accept the simultaneous performance of his new tragic opera with a burlesque from a commedia dell’arte troupe - is turned into a touching wartime drama of nurses, invalids, airmen – and of painful delusions and soul-searching, before final happiness. The excellent cast is led by Thomas Allen as the Music Master and Soile Isokoski as Ariadne. Extra features include When Two Worlds Collide, Thomas Allen at Glyndebourne, Vladimir Jurowski on his final production as Music Director and a cast gallery. In 40 years of watching Ariadne, the opera has never moved me more.’’ - The Daily Mail ‘‘...a terrific evening of onstage entertainment. For any Strauss lover ...an absolute must.’’ www.MuscialCriticism.com