The Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxosis all about the backstage shenanigans before a performance - a bit near the knuckle for Welsh National Opera, which has been having some behind-the-scenes bother of its own. With the peremptory departure of its new music director the company is suddenly having to rustle up conductors for much of the coming season or two.
This could not have come at a worse time for WNO, just before it is due to move into its new home at the much-heralded Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. With no time to be lost Carlo Rizzi, WNO's previous music director, has been re-appointed to the job for a two-year period, and - fingers crossed - the curtain is about to go up on a historic season.
It was a coincidence that Rizzi was already scheduled to conduct the new production of Ariadne auf Naxos that opened on Saturday. A welcoming (and probably relieved) cheer greeted him at the end of the performance. Rizzi might not be everyone's first choice as a conductor of Strauss - too much Italian vitality, not enough German philosophical mellowness - but the orchestra plays well for him and he gives a strong lead.
This one needed it, as the stage direction was flimsy. Neil Armfield updated the Prologue and made a clear class distinction between the opera troupe and the commedia dell'arte people, the former in smart suits, the latter beach bums sharing a takeaway pizza.
The point of Ariadne is that the two groups are unexpectedly forced to combine their efforts in the performance that follows and Armfield had the right idea in trying to create an air of surprised improvisation - the comedians found themselves making comedy out of anything they had picked up backstage - but much of the slapstick was woefully feeble.
And why was the set torn to shreds? Could not the wealthiest man in Vienna afford a needle and thread?
The negative virtue of this rather vacant production was that one barely realised it was there. The three nymphs, with Gail Pearson floating a nice top line, mostly just stood and sang. The harlequin quartet, led by D'Arcy Bleiker, were left to bumble around ineffectually. More personality was fielded by Katarzyna Dondalska's Zerbinetta, but not more voice. For all her stratospheric top notes her soprano is thin and tinny.
The performance was rescued from mediocrity by its other three leading singers. In the Prologue Alice Coote's Composer dominated proceedings, both for her intensity and the heartwarming fullness of her singing.
This part may take her mezzo as high as it wants to go, but a voice as glorious as hers could comfortably fill theatres two or three times the size.
This was the right time for the company to slip in an opera as intimate as Ariadne. The Wales Millennium Centre, looking impressively spacious and well-appointed inside, will soon be open and then WNO will understandably have its sights set on greater things. Tel: 029 2087 8889.
