The real story behind Richard Strauss’ decision to use a chamber orchestra for his opera “Ariadne on Naxos” is rather complicated and frankly mundane. We prefer a much more “colorful” version, even though it may be as imaginary as the Greek myth of poor Ariadne herself.

In any case, here’s how some fanciful Germans claim it all came about when Strauss’s opera was premiered in Stuttgart on today’s date in 1912:

Back when a new opera house was being planned for that city, Strauss was asked how large the orchestral pit should be. “Oh, it should hold about 100 players,” he suggested. So, to determine the size required for the new theater’s pit, the architects rather naively asked the local military band to assemble 100 players, have them stand at attention, and measured the amount of space they occupied.

Now, as you might expect, soldiers standing at attention take up a lot less space than an equal number of seated string players, not to mention trombonists and timpanists. And so, the resulting space in the new theater could only accommodate a chamber orchestra.

And as luck would have it, the Stuttgart Opera was also eager to launch the brand-new opera by Strauss. When he learned what had happened, Strauss had a good laugh, but, being the eminently practical sort he was, simply wrote his new opera for chamber ensemble of about 40 players.

Fact or fantasy, that’s how they like to tell it in Stuttgart.