Strauss – Die Frau ohne Schatten

Der Kaiser – Eric Cutler
Die Kaiserin – Camilla Nylund
Die Amme – Evelyn Herlitzius
Der Geisterbote – Andreas Bauer Kanabas
Ein Hüter der Schwelle des Tempels – Nikola Hillebrand
Erscheinung eines Jünglings – Martin Mitterrutzner
Stimme des Falken – Lea-ann Dunbar
Eine Stimme von oben – Christa Mayer
Barak, der Färber – Oleksandr Pushniak
Sein Weib – Miina-Liisa Värelä
Der Einäugige – Rafael Fingerlos
Der Einarmige – Tilmann Rönnebeck
Der Bucklige – Tansel Akzeybek
Dienerinnnen, Kinderstimmen, Stimmen der Ungeborenen – Nikola Hillebrand, Sofia Savenko, Lea-ann Dunbar, Stephanie Atanasov, Dominika Škrabalová, Michal Doron, Bryndis Gudjonsdottir

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden, Kinderchor der Semperoper Dresden, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann.
Stage director – David Bösch.

Semperoper, Dresden, Germany.  Saturday, March 23rd, 2024.

On paper, this new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, at the Semperoper Dresden, most definitely promised much.  One of the most revered Straussian conductors of today, leading a mouth-watering cast with experienced exponents of their roles, Camilla Nylund and Eric Cutler as the Kaiserin and Kaiser, joining Evelyn Herlitzius as the Amme.  Not to mention the opportunity to see the newer generation of Straussians, embodied in Miina-Liisa Värelä and Oleksandr Pushniak as the Baraks.  And when there are voices of the calibre of Christa Mayer in the role of the Stimme von oben, one cannot fail to expect that this evening would have the ingredients of being a magnificent one of opera. 

David Bösch’s staging takes the story at relatively face value, at least initially, illustrating the events with admirable clarity – in an opera with a libretto that can often feel impenetrable.  Bösch makes a clear delineation between the world of the Kaiser and Kaiserin, seemingly unencumbered by considerable quantities of furniture, and that of the Baraks – a concrete hovel that shows a group of people just getting by.  He makes frequent use of video, by Falko Herold and Patrick Bannwart, to enhance the action, for instance showing the Kaiser turning to stone, or enhances the Baraks’ hovel, with the stage covered in pink flurries, as if to suggest the Färberin dreams of dressing up and transcending her quotidian poverty.  Bösch makes a decent attempt to engage with the work’s heteronormativity, partly by making Act 2 so deliciously camp.  Not just in the pink, frilly dresses the Färberin was given to wear, but also in the way the Amme conjures up a group of nubile young men to entertain the Färberin, dressed only in some very tight boxers with somewhat prominent bulges – visible even from my seat at the back of the Parkett. 

Herlitzius’ Amme is very much the central focus of Bösch’s staging, and throughout she holds the stage, whether simulating drinking beers or dancing with the nubile chaps, or in the way that she comforted Nylund’s Kaiserin in their opening scene in a most maternal way.  Indeed, it struck me that Bösch is giving us an allegory not just of the passage of the generations, but also of a mother learning to let go of her daughter as she starts to make her own life.  It’s no coincidence that Herlitzius and Nylund are given similar wigs to create a certain familial similarity.  Moreover, it felt that Bösch brought out a real and genuine sense of the love between people, tapping into an idea that learning to let go is as important as loving deeply – whether the Amme ultimately accepting the Kaiserin’s new independence, or the Färberin accepting that she really does love Barak deeply and wanting to recommit to her life with him.  In so doing, Bösch fully succeeds in universalizing the work, pulling it out of the dated heteronormativity, and making it about the love that lies at the core, both in the actions of the characters and in this glorious score.

And this score has rarely sounded as glorious as it did tonight.  The quality of the playing that Thielemann obtained from the Staatskapelle was very special indeed.  It wasn’t quite flawless – there were some split notes and ragged entries here and there, unfortunately with one such example on the very first note of the four and a half hour running time.  It was, undoubtedly, very human.  The playing was enhanced by the phenomenal acoustic of the Semperoper, rendering the bass frequencies so rich and warm, making everything we heard founded on a plush velvet core.  The range of colour the musicians produced was seemingly unlimited, pulling out the richness of Strauss’ score in a way that seems almost unimaginable – until you hear it.  Thielemann phrased the work lovingly, moulding every single line, so that, for example in the interlude between scenes 1 and 2 of Act 2, the work seemed to unfold with a logic that carried us along with it.  The choruses, prepared by André Kellinghaus and Claudia Sebastian-Bertsch respectively, sang with discipline and focused tone in their brief interjections.

This assumption of the Amme is very much a pinnacle in Herlitzius’ career, even for a singer who has given audiences so many transformative experiences in the theatre over the years.  She’s the glue that holds this staging together and does it with uninhibited and energetic physicality, absolutely magnetic in voice and action and their connection with the sung text.  She makes every word live.  What she also achieves is making the challenging tessitura for the Amme seem the most natural thing in the world.  She crosses the registers with consummate ease, never any sense of a break, and the sheer amplitude of the voice rings through the house in this grateful acoustic.  This was the kind of assumption I feel privileged to have witnessed.

Nylund sang the Kaiserin with such human generosity and warmth.  She managed to negotiate her tricky opening number impressively, the voice soaring with unlimited height, turning the corners elegantly.  As the evening progressed, Nylund also incarnated the genuineness of her character, filling the tone with warmth as she interacted with Barak.  She was also unflinching in her confrontation with Keikobad in the final act, projecting the text into the house, making every word matter, the strength she found in ‘ich will nicht’ full of determination.  Yes, the vibrations have loosened a little in her creamy soprano, but the ease on top is most certainly there.  Cutler soared with similarly splendid ease in his music as the Kaiser.  Indeed, the way that the voice took wing in his opening narration in Act 1, combined with this magnificent orchestra in this acoustic, brought tears to the eyes.  The tessitura held no terrors for him, soaring with long, seemingly unlimited phrases, and impeccable clarity of diction.

Värelä’s rich, juicy soprano was well matched to the role of the Färberin, the vibrations even and the top bright and penetrating.  Tonight, I found her to engage with the text much more than on the previous occasions I have heard her, although I did wish she had used it more as the starting point of the line, using it to bring out ever more meaning.  In her compatriot Nylund and in Herlitzius she was working with real masters in that respect.  Still, her soprano sounds entirely healthy and she was a terrifically game stage presence, camping it up with glee in Act 2.  Pushniak was a very welcome discovery for me in the role of Barak.  The Ukrainian baritone sang the role in excellent German.  The voice is a firm column of sound, perhaps a little dry, but this made his Barak even more rustic and genuine.  His ‘mir anvertraut’ was sung with such genuine warmth and generosity that it was impossible not to be moved. 

The remainder of the cast reflected the excellent standards one would expect from this house.  Rafael Fingerlos sang the Einäugige with an exceptionally firm and handsome baritone, while Tansel Akzeybek sang the Bucklige in a bright, focused tenor.  Andreas Bauer Kanabas was an imposing presence as the Geisterbote, dispatching his music in a resonant bass, which did taper off a little at the top.  Mayer was luxury casting as the Stimme von oben, pouring out rich, claret tone into the house.  Lee-ann Dunbar sang the Stimme des Falken with an attractive fast vibrato, while Nikola Hillebrand brought a beautifully silky soprano with an easy top to the Hüter der Schwelle des Tempels.  The remaining roles were very well taken.

This was a very special evening in the theatre.  Bösch has given us a real ‘show’ with extremely impressive visuals – not least the huge falcon spanning the stage.  He also manages to tell this complicated story with admirable clarity.  More than that, he humanizes the opera, making it about real emotions between real people, making us reflect upon those we love and how, with time, we learn to let them take their own path.  Musically, it was spectacular.  The orchestra sounded absolutely fabulous in this acoustic, and the singing across the board was the very best we could imagine today.  The audience greeted the cast with huge ovations, as indeed they did for Bösch and his team.  If you can get to Dresden, run for a ticket.