With his opera Ariadne on Naxos, Richard Strauss succeeded in making a lasting contribution to 20th century chamber opera and at the same time (alongside Elektra, Der Rosenklavier, Arabella and Die Frau Ohne Schatten) provided an example of one of the most productive and successful cooperations with a renowned literary contemporary, Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Numerous operas by Richard Strauss were first performed in Dresden’s Semperoper, in the very building which was destroyed in 1945 and could only open again in 1977. A new production of Strauss’s Ariadne on Naxos was performed here on 14 March 1999, after many long years, with production and stage-setting by the Swiss director Marco Arturo Marelli, costumes by Dagmar Niefind-Marelli and under the musical direction of Colin Davis.