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
Concert – approx. 220 minutes
Repertoire
Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten op. 65 TrV 234
Subtitles available in German.
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