DVD Review: Coming Down to Earth

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera take on Die Frau Ohne Schatten.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Lost in the darkness: Mlada Khudoley (left) and Avgust Amonov as the Empress and Emperor
in Richard Strauss' Die Frau Ohne Schatten.
Photo © 2011 Mariinsky Opera.

Die Frau Ohne Schatten is composer Richard Strauss' most ambitious collaboration with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. A Magic Flute-style quest (in this case for the missing "shadow" of the title) written on a Wagnerian scale, Frau has a complex libretto that requires its director to make frequent transitions between the everyday world and the realm of faerie, ruled by the merciless Keikobad. The titular Frau is  Keikobad's daughter, the Empress. She seeks to cast a shadow and bring fertility to her loveless marriage. With five leading roles and a heavyweight orchestration, it is a formidable challenge for any opera house.

DVD Review: The Shadow Resounds

Die Frau ohne Schatten  (Salzburg, 2011, OpusArte)
Vienna Philharmonic cond. Christian Thielemann
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Consider that a divorce? The Dyer's Wife (Evelyn Herlitzius) confronts Barak (Wolfgang Koch)
in Act II of Die Frau ohne Schatten from the 2011 Salzburg Festival.
Photo from the Salzburg Festival ©2011 OpusArte.

The historic early days of the recording era are at the center of Christof Loy's stripped-down Salzburg production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, the longest and most challenging of Richard Strauss' fifteen operas. Mr. Loy moves the action of this fairy-tale opera to a Vienna recording studio, a replica of the Sofiensaal ballroom which served as a crucible for the modern industry of recording classical music and opera.