This staging of Ariadne auf Naxos from Florence’s Maggio Musicale starts with a striking – not to say disturbing – image: the Major-Domo wheels away a frail, slumped figure in underwear in a wheelchair. This, one is left to infer, is the richest man in Vienna, who then disappears, not to be seen again. His wealth, in Matthias Hartmann’s modern production, is visible throughout, though, in a variety of artworks littered around the stage, including a Giacometti-like sculpture, on which hangs the desert-island backcloth.

But beyond this first detail, the staging offers nothing especially original or challenging: a conventional modern-dress affair that conveys the action effectively rather than interestingly. Similarly, the cast assembled under Daniele Gatti’s baton is respectable rather than sensational. Krassimira Stoyanova is stretched by the demands of Ariadne nowadays and is not at her best early in the Opera, but she’s a fine artist who rallies to give a moving, honest performance in the final scene – although it must be said that, like others in the cast, her German can be a little approximate.

Sophie Koch is an experienced Composer, and though likewise not as fresh as she once was, still turns in an effective performance. Jessica Pratt is a likeable, lively Zerbinetta, with impressively easy coloratura. AJ Glueckert doesn’t possess the ringing Heldentenor of an ideal Bacchus but sings and acts movingly, imbuing the big duet with an affecting dramatic integrity. Markus Werba is a superb Music-Master and Franz Tscherne a brilliantly supercilious Major-Domo, even if he slightly fluffs his most important line. The other roles are all ably filled.

Gatti conducts the score with evident affection, his account unrushed and expansive, moving in the Opera’s overture and achieving a noble sense of grandeur in the final minutes. The playing is always competent but hardly distinguished, conjuring up only hints of the magic that this score can convey. Taken overall, then, this is an admirable achievement, if hardly an Ariadne for the ages.

Dynamic’s presentation includes synopsis and essay translated from the Italian, incidentally, but you’ll need to have your wits about you to unravel them.