본 논문은 호프만스탈의 오페라 「낙소스 섬의 아리아드네」의 형성과 개작 과정을 살펴보고 작품에 나타난 혼종의 양상을 고찰하는 연구다. 호프만스탈은 원래 이 오페라를 몰리에르의 코미디발레 「부르주아 귀족」의 극중극으로 구상했다. 그러나 개정판에서는 몰리에르 부분을 삭제하고 독립된 오페라로 고쳤다. 공연을 준비하는 서막과 오페라로 구성된 개정판에서 이질적 요소의 혼합이 다양한 양상으로 드러난다. 비극과 희극이 동시에 공연되고, 비극의 영웅과 코메디아델라르테의 광대들이 한 공간에 섞이는 것이다. 이 같은 괴상한 혼합은 주문자의 요구에 따른 결과였다. 극중작곡가는 현실의 권력 앞에 굴복하지만, 결국 여러 대립 요소들이 각각 개성을 잃지 않은 채 혼합된 독특한 작품을 완성시켰다. 이는 예술의 궁극적 승리를 증명하는 것이다.

The aim of this study is to make an analysis of hybridity in Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne on Naxos), an opera by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The collaborations between librettist Hofmannsthal and composer Strauss were very important for both of them. Hofmannsthal was able to escape from the `magical lyrical world` in which he was immersed in his youth after his encounter with Strauss. And Strauss`s encounter with Hofmannsthal was also a great opportunity to enhance his reputation as an opera composer. Hofmannsthal planned Ariadne auf Naxos as `a play-within-a-play` in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by 17th-century French playwright Moliere. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme as a `comedie-ballett`, which mixes a spoken play with music and dance, was also a precedent of the hybrid style. Following the failure of the premiere in 1912, Hofmannsthal removed the complete portion of the Moliere`s play in the 1916 revision. Instead, he created the `prologue` with music, which would explain why the opera combines an heroic myth with a comedy performed by a commedia dell`arte group. In this final edition, hybridity of the work is complicatedly exposed. Opera seria and opera buffa are played at the same time, classical heroes and contemporary comedians come on the same stage, and noble asceticism comes into conflict with vulgar hedonism and is mixed with it. This bizarre form, in which serious music and frivolous comedy are mixed, is the result of being coerced by a rich and vulgar sponsor. The `composer` in the drama, who succumbs to money power, implies more or less the artist existing in all societies at all periods. But the opera has not become a meaningless jumble, but has formed a complete whole, in which the contradictory elements found a suitable combination. This whole is not the synthesis of oppositional elements in a classical sense, but means hybridity, in which each element represents a diversity. The completed opera demonstrates the victory of the composer in the drama, and the victory also belongs to Hofmannsthal and Strauss.