Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne - how can an opera go so wrong?

Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos should be the perfect Glyndebourne opera, not too long, not too demanding, a unique and cunning mixture of seriousness and comedy, plenty to think about if you’re inclined to do that, nothing to oppress you, almost no longueurs — though I might take that back later; and a giddy ending. So it is quite a coup to come up with an account that offers almost no pleasure, whether from the pit, from the voices, from the stage; which seems empty and pretentious in a way quite different from what Strauss can all too often manage; where the humour is leaden and the seriousness has been mislaid, so that it makes — remembering always the journeys to and from the place, which mean that for almost anyone a visit to Glyndebourne is a full-day affair — for an infuriated sense of expensively wasted time.