Dip Your Ears, No. 123 (Frau ohne Schatten)

J.S.Bach, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Christian Thielemann WPh, Vienna State Opera Chorus S.Gould, A.Schwanewilms, M.Schuster, W.Koch, E.Herlitzius et al. (Opus Arte DVD 7104)

Phantasmorgastic, but with shadows: On the downside, Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten is boring. On the upside it’s a great opera with music unlike anywhere else in Strauss. Especially thanks to Christian Thielemann’s conducting; succulent and lean in turns, modern yet intransigently sumptuous. And uncut, which turns the Nurse (Michaela Schuster) into a principal character! Evelyn Herlitzius, the Dyer’s wife, also stands out, the other singers performs between convincingly and admirably. The staging by Christof Loy—the story of the first studio recording of Die Frau as re-told through the opera itself—is too clever by half, but at least it’s clever.

Review from the Salzburg production here.

J.S.Bach, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Christian Thielemann WPh, Vienna State Opera Chorus S.Gould, A.Schwanewilms, M.Schuster, W.Koch, E.Herlitzius et al. (Opus Arte Blu-ray)