On 25th May 2019, the Vienna State Opera celebrates the opera house’s 150th birthday with a new production of a work that also has an anniversary next year. Richard Strauss described his Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) as his “last romantic opera”. It received its world première – at the Staatsoper – in October 1919, so Vincent Huguet’s new staging, conducted by Strauss expert Christian Thielemann, marks a double celebration. It is one of six new opera productions next season, including a world première, and two Wiener Staatsballett premières: a true Viennese birthday bouquet.
Die Frau ohne Schatten has a fantastical plot, with hints of The Arabian Nights in the character of the Empress, who is half human. In the form of a gazelle, she was captured by the Emperor, but she took human shape and married him. However, the Empress casts no shadow, symbolising her inability to bear children. Her father Keikobad, King of the Spirit Realm, decrees that unless she gains a shadow, he will reclaim her and the Emperor will be turned to stone. Strauss’ music is richly orchestrated and his opera requires big voices capable of riding the score, particularly the role of the Dyer’s Wife who agrees to sell her shadow to the Empress. The great Swedish soprano Nina Stemme sings the Dyer’s Wife in this new production, while Camilla Nylund is the Empress and Stephen Gould the Emperor. Evelyn Herlitzius – a superb Elektra – tackles the role of the wily Nurse. With casting this good, Frau is the pick of the bunch next season.
The first new production of the season will be a familiar one to London audiences. Sir David McVicar’s staging of Les Troyens opened at the Royal Opera back in 2012, and finally makes its way to Vienna in October, the first time Berlioz’s epic has been staged at the Staatsoper for nearly 40 years. It’s a spectacular staging, particularly the giant horse, snorting flames through its nostrils against Cassandre’s unheeded warnings. Anna Caterina Antonacci, an outstanding Cassandre in London, leads the Vienna casting. Joyce DiDonato has yet to sing her first Didon on stage, but her contribution to the outstanding concert performance in Strasbourg last year had audiences salivating. Alain Altinoglu, superb in French repertoire, conducts.
Treading the Vienna boards far more frequently than Les Troyens is Otello. The Staatsoper has had seven productions in its history, giving nearly 500 performances of Verdi’s penultimate opera. Adrian Noble, who directed an excellent Macbeth – another of Verdi’s Shakespeare operas – at The Metropolitan Opera, offers a new staging, conducted by Myung-whun Chung. Aleksandrs Antonenko, a memorable Moor, takes on the title role again, while Olga Bezsmertna sings his innocent young bride, Desdemona.