Through decades of this event, my experience at every one of them was similar in having one or two peak experiences, performances that swept the listener away and stayed in memory. For this concert, even among a handful of standouts, “the” moment came during a generous excerpt from Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos….Handling the difficult vocal requirements with ease and power, Simone McIntosh’s Composer and Elisa Sunshine’s Zerbinetta clashed and (almost) reconciled, projecting to the audience the unexpected mutual attraction the characters themselves are not aware of. Their duet provided “the” moment when everything else falls away….The cast was uniformly outstanding, ready to go onstage next door, if the SF Opera centennial season happens to include Ariadne.