Die Frau ohne Schatten
Wed, 30. Oct 2024, 18:00
Opera in three acts by Richard Strauss
The jealously guarded daughter of the powerful spirit ruler Keikobad was once hunted by the emperor of the Southern Islands when she had taken on the form of a gazelle and then became empress by marrying him. Now, to prevent the emperor from being turned to stone, she must cast a shadow, which in her world means that she must be able to bear a child. In the human world, she tries to buy the shadow of a childless, dissatisfied dyer’s wife. But when she realises that she can only buy her luck through this couple’s misfortune, she decides to relinquish her wish.
During the First World War, Richard Strauss and his like-minded partner Hugo von Hofmannsthal created this fantastical, fairy-tale opera full of symbols and metaphors, which they regarded as their main oeuvre. »The Woman Without a Shadow» is undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic, fascinating works in the repertoire of opera in the way it oscillates between otherworldliness and psychoanalytic zeal. With all kinds of conceivable sounds that shimmer in a vast range of timbres, Strauss once again expanded the palette of late-Romantic orchestral music with this challenging, lavish opus that dealt with highly intimate subject matter in a bombastic form. Claus Guth’s multi-layered, impressive directorial work, created at La Scala in Milan and already performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, emphasises the sombre undertones of the opera and evokes the hardship of the empress who is caught between two repressive worlds.
Dauer:
approx. 4:17 h including two intervals (after act 1 and act 2)