Germany R. Strauss, Die Frau ohne Schatten: Soloists, Children’s Chorus, Chorus and Orchestra of Deutsche Oper Berlin / Sir Donald Runnicles (conductor). Deutsche Oper Berlin, 8.2.2025. (SRT)
With Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Tobias Kratzer completes a trilogy of Richard Strauss operas – his Strauss Zyklus – that he has directed for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and in doing so he purges Die Frau so rigorously of its supernatural elements that he might as well have used caustic soda and steel wool. That approach might have worked for Arabella and Intermezzo, the previous two operas in his cycle, but it strips from Die Frau one of the things that gives it meaning and renders it instead a somewhat tawdry drama about surrogacy.
The two couples of the story are humdrum folk who can’t decide whether they want children. The Emperor and Empress live in a glitzy minimalist apartment, while Barak and his wife live in cramped quarters at the back of their dry cleaning store. The Nurse approaches the Dyer’s Wife to act as surrogate mother for the Empress, which she does in return for material reward and a hot young toyboy (the Vision of the Young Man), but she miscarriages the surrogacy at the end of Act II and, after undergoing marriage counselling at the start of Act III, she and Barak decide to divorce and find happiness elsewhere. Meanwhile the Emperor and Empress undergo a crisis in their marriage that is resolved only when the Empress stands up to her father and decides that she doesn’t want children after all.
Like so many of these Regietheater productions, there is the germ of a good idea here, and I enjoyed watching some of the character interactions, for all that Jordan Shanahan’s Barak is given far too much exasperated shrugging to do. However, Kratzer’s concept cannot be sustained over the work’s full, complex length, and there are some toe-curlingly cringy moments. The Spirit Messenger is an Amazon delivery driver yet also a doctor in the labour ward – presumably two separate characters, but who can be sure? – and Kratzer relies too much on video to fill in the back story. His worst crime is to ruin the heartbreakingly lovely song of the Nightwatchmen by having Barak watch a cheesy Saturday night talent contest on his TV while they pass by, and I have no idea what was supposed to be going on during the Emperor’s hallucinogenic Act II scena, nor why the final quartet was sung direct from the printed score by both couples as though they had only just realised they were supposed to be doing a performance.
Having said all that, however, I would happily sit through it all over again because of the quality of the musical values, which were easily the finest I have heard in a Die Frau in the theatre. As the Emperor, David Butt Philip is unquestionably the real deal. He sings the part’s ungrateful, impossible tessitura with rock solid security and burnished heroism. It is the kind of interpretation of the part you hope to hear, maybe, two or three times in a lifetime, and his singing would be worth the admission price on its own. It is completely baffling that British opera houses aren’t beating a path to the door of this wonderful British singer; or does it just speak of how deep the UK’s opera crisis has become?
Next to him, Daniel Köhler gets all of the brittle beauty of the Empress’s part perfectly, singing everything with feathery lightness and, when needed, full-voiced passion. So, too, did Lise Lindström, who stood in as the Dyer’s Wife at late notice and proved to be that rare operatic jewel: a replacement who is probably an upgrade. She sang the part with grace and beauty, and even a touch of humour in the character’s more haranguing moments, but always with humanity and empathy. It’s hard to imagine the part being done better, and it is incredibly impressive that she learnt the whole fussy production in such a short period of time. Jordan Shanahan sang Barak with warmth and beauty, and your sympathy was always with him, even when he considers killing his wife at the end of the second act.
Marina Prudenskaya announced that she was ill, but sang the Nurse anyway, and still sounded terrific in doing so. She was dressed and made up like a matriarch from a superyacht, but the voice was always deep, rich and cool. Of the smaller parts, Patrick Guetti was a massive Spirit Messenger, physically and vocally – his is a voice to marvel at and a career to keep an eye on – and I enjoyed the vigour of the three brothers as well as the beauty of the supernatural high voices.
The biggest cheer of the night, however, was for the orchestra, who sounded sensational. Velvety violins and twinkling winds met dark, rich brass and thumping basses, all kept in balance by the Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Generalmusikdirektor, Sir Donald Runnicles. I am told this is his last new production before he steps down as the company’s chief. If so, then it is quite a high on which to go out, and he presided over a musical and orchestral performance that was so strong it almost redeemed Kratzer’s visuals.
Simon Thompson
Cast included:
Emperor – David Butt Philip
Empress – Daniela Köhler
Nurse – Marina Prudenskaya
Barak – Jordan Shanahan
Dyer’s Wife – Lise Lindström
Spirit Messenger – Patrick Guetti
Vision of a Young Man – Chance Jonas-O’Toole
Production:
Director – Tobias Kratzer
Sets and Costume design – Rainer Sellmaier
Lighting design – Olaf Winter
Video – Jonas Dahl, Manuel Braun, Janic Bebi
Dramaturgy – Jörg Königsdorf
Children’s chorus – Christian Lindhorst
Chorus director -Jeremy Bines