Heroes and Beasts: Die Frau ohne Schatten in Warsaw

Die Frau ohne Schatten

Lise Lindström (Dyer's Wife)

Lindsay Ammann (Nurse) and Lise Lindstrom (The Dyer's Wife)

Tadeusz Szlenkier (Emperor) and Annemarie Kremer (Empress)

Tadeusz Szlenkier (Emperor)

Lise Lindstrom (The Dyer's Wife) and Lauri Vasar (Barak)

By Hugo Shirley, 17 February 2026

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“a statement of intent in set-designer-turned-intendant Boris Kudlička’s first season in charge”

Reviewed at Teatr Wielki: Moniuszko Hall, Warsaw on 15 February 2026

Strauss R., Die Frau ohne Schatten

Polish National Opera

Bassem Akiki, Conductor

Mariusz Treliński, Director

Fabien Lédé, Set Designer

Marek Adamski, Costume Designer

Marc Heinz, Lighting Designer

Orchestra of the Teatr Wielki

Chorus of the Teatr Wielki

Tadeusz Szlenkier, Emperor

Annemarie Kremer, Empress

Lindsay Ammann, Nurse

Lauri Vasar, Barak, the Dyer

Lise Lindstrom, Barak the Dyer's Wife

A tawdry travesty of a Traviata in Warsaw

Jonathan Sutherland, 7th April

Mariusz Treliński's Traviata had nothing to do with Dumas, Piave or Verdi. It's as if he confused La Dame aux camélias with Lulu.

**111

No mercy for Ivo Van Hove’s Clemenza

Jonathan Sutherland, 16th January

Strong musical performances, but Ivo Van Hove’s Powerpoint presentation of Clemenza at the Teatr Wielki is out of focus.

****1

Destiny has rarely been gloomier: Treliński's new Forza at the Met

Robert Levine, 26th February

The first new Forza at the Met for nearly 30 years is lustily sung, led by Norwegian soprano, Lise Davidsen, and Igor Golovatenko as her vengeful brother.

****1

Swedish première of Szymanowski’s King Roger in Stockholm

Laura Servidei, 19th March

Elin Rombo shines in a co-production of King Roger with the Royal Swedish Opera and Teatr Wielki, in Warsaw

***11

Off-the-mark Iolanta, but a terrifying Bluebeard at the Met

Robert Levine, 28th January

Mariusz Treliński's double bill pairing returns to the Metropolitan Opera with fine performances from Sonya Yoncheva and Gerald Finley in the leads.

****1

Occult, mystical, extreme: Prokofiev’s Fiery Angel in Aix

David Karlin, 5th July

With a stunningly inventive and modern-sounding score, strong acting performances and a staging full of theatrical illusion and coherent in spite of general weirdness, Aix's Fiery Angel impresses.

****1

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Hugo Shirley

Hugo Shirley is a Berlin-based writer and musicologist. He has written widely as a critic in the UK, including for The Spectator, the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, and has held editorial posts at both Opera and Gramophone. He was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015) and has a PhD in musicology from King's College London, where his thesis focused on Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Heroes and Beasts: Mariusz Treliński’s staging of Die Frau ohne Schatten in Warsaw