On 26 January, DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN will celebrate its premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin under the musical direction of Sir Donald Runnicles in a production by Tobias Kratzer.
Image above: Probenfoto DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN (c) Matthias Baus.
Catherine Foster (pictured), one of the world’s leading exponents of high drama, plays the role of the Dyer alongside Jordan Shanahan as her husband Barak. Clay Hilley, who is internationally renowned for his powerful Wagner interpretations and has taken on the role of David Butt Philip at short notice, can be seen as the Emperor. Daniela Köhler, who has been praised for her Wagner and Strauss interpretations and has also stepped in at short notice for Jane Archibald, will take on the role of the Empress. With Marina Prudenskaya as the Nurse, there is a powerful-voiced cast on stage.
With its gigantic orchestral apparatus and the exorbitant vocal demands placed on the five main roles, FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, which premiered in 1919, is considered the pinnacle work not only in Richard Strauss’ oeuvre, but in the entire opera repertoire. Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal wanted to create a modern counterpart to ZAUBERFLÖTE with their monumental fairytale opera and, like Mozart’s masterpiece, the fairytale plot in FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN is not a narrative end in itself, but carries a humanistic message that is directly linked to current discourses.
In the new production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Tobias Kratzer has set out to ‘demystify’ the work and places the real conflicts of the main characters at the centre of his production rather than the fairytale. The questions of the desire to have children and surrogacy determine the attempt of two couples to fulfil their relationships with new meaning and to find private happiness. And linked to this is the question of whether one can buy one’s own happiness at the expense of others.
With this approach, the new production also follows on from the acclaimed productions of ARABELLA and INTERMEZZO: While Kratzer’s production of ARABELLA brought to light a gender issue of high topical value beneath the operetta-like surface of the play, the marriage comedy INTERMEZZO turned out to be a cryptic bourgeois relationship portrait.
With DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Sir Donald Runnicles is also continuing its great Strauss tradition – an expertise that will also be emphasised in March by the Strauss Days with performances of SALOME, ELEKTRA, ARABELLA and INTERMEZZO.
WHEN?
Premiere: Sunday, 26 January 2025
Further performances:
30 January 2025
02 February 2025
05 February 2025
08 February 2025
11 February 2025
WHERE?
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Bismarckstraße 35
10627 Berlin
