Die Frau ohne Schatten

In a magical world ruled by a stern god, two husbands and two wives find themselves locked in a struggle for the future of human life. Die Frau ohne Schatten is Strauss’ biggest opera and arguably his most ambitious. The Emperor has risked all to win his beautiful, shape-shifting Empress, but their marriage has come at a terrible cost. The humble dyer Barak and his wife have simpler problems, but cosmic powers are in play and only love at its most selfless and compassionate can shatter the curse and show both couples the path to happiness. Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919) is that rare thing, an opera with an entirely original story. Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal conceived it as a fairy-tale fantasy—their answer to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. But as World War I raged, it grew into something richer and darker: a huge, ravishing allegory of love and renewal in the face of destruction. Strauss uses a colossal orchestra to paint scenes of startling immediacy and drama: the flight of a hawk, an enchanted fountain, a man transformed into stone. Yet, beneath the opulence and splendor beats a passionate, yearning heart. Performances remain rare, but when the performers are equal to its challenges, it can be one of the most potent and moving experiences in 20th-century opera.