Die Frau ohne Schatten

For this co-production with the Nikikai Opera in Tokyo, internationally successful director Peter Konwitschny, whose ground-breaking Strauss productions include ELEKTRA, SALOME and ROSENKAVALIER, has reinterpreted one of the most enigmatic operas. What comes across as clichéd in the libretto reveals, in this reading, some strikingly topical aspects of the eternal battle of the sexes. The spirit king Keikobad, invisible father of all, who is always represented by messengers, joined by the Emperor, a hunting enthusiast who sees women only as prey, and the Dyer’s Wife who protests in vain against having to serve as a birth machine – they are all let loose on each other in a Freudian dream world.

Written at the beginning of the 20th century, when homosexuality was still punishable by imprisonment and married women were counted as their husbands’ property, it is no wonder that opera could only portray true traumas of our civilisation in the guise of a fairy tale. It was only there that individuals could rebel against the roles ascribed by an overpowering, patriarchal society.  rich and lush music provides the perfect cloak for the protagonists and their highly emotional outbursts.