Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

About this event

Under Christian Thielemann’s baton, the production of Richard Strauss’ Frau ohne Schatten at the Vienna State Opera becomes a much acclaimed musical highlight “with a top-class protagonist quintet” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and a sensationally playing Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper. The opera, here in Vienna performed without any cuts, was described by the composer himself as “the most beautiful and noble work” and received its world premiere on this very stage a century ago. The story is complex, involving two couples – emperor and empress, and dyer and his wife – who reach a happy ending through self-knowledge and willpower. The cast with “three of the greatest soprano stars of the Viennese operatic firmament” (The New York Review of Books) is formidable: Camilla Nylund as Empress, Nina Stemme as Dyer’s Wife and Evelyn Herlitzius as Nurse. At their side tenor Stephen Gould, who sings “a fabulous emperor with accurate high notes” and baritone Wolfgang Koch, who delivers a “finely modulating, touching and never forcing Barak” (Der Kurier). Young French director Vincent Huguet gives his debut in Vienna and tells the story as a complex fairy tale, rich in images. Christian Thielemann “presents the most powerful and poetic Strauss conducting in decades” hails the Neue Zürcher Zeitung: “The piece has never sounded so rich, so expressive, so beguilingly sensual even under Karl Böhm, Wolfgang Sawallisch or Georg Solti.”

Featuring

Stage Director: Vincent Huguet

Set Designer: Aurélie Maestre

Costume Designer: Clémence Pernoud

Lighting and Video Designer: Bertrand Couderc

Dramatic Advisor: Louis Geisler

Conductor: Christian Thielemann

The Emperor: Stephen Gould

The Empress: Camilla Nylund

The Nurse: Evelyn Herlitzius

The Spirit Messenger: Wolfgang Bankl

The Guardian of the Threshold / The Voice of the Falcon: Maria Nazarova

The Apparition of a Youth: Benjamin Bruns

A Voice from Above: Monika Bohinec

Barak, the Dyer: Wolfgang Koch

Barak's Wife: Nina Stemme

The One-Eyed: Samuel Hasselhorn

The One-Armed: Marcus Pelz

The Hunchback: Thomas Ebenstein

Servants of the Empress: Ileana Tonca, Mariam Battistelli, Szilvia Vörös

Voices of Unborn Children: Ileana Tonca, Mariam Battistelli, Virginie Verrez, Szilvia Vörös, Bongiwe Nakani

Solo Voices:, Ileana Tonca, Mariam Battistelli, Virginie Verrez, Szilvia Vörös, Bongiwe Nakani, Zoryana Kushpler

Chor der Wiener Staatsoper

Chorus Master: Thomas Lang

Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper

Bühnenorchester der Wiener Staatsoper

Opernschule der Wiener Staatsoper

Programme

1. Concert – approx. 220 minutes

Repertoire

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten op. 65 TrV 234

Subtitles available in German.