Met assembles a Strauss cast for the ages in an astonishing “Frau ohne Schatten”
For an enduringly popular composer like Richard Strauss, it’s unexpected to find that one of his major operas has only had sixty-something performances at the Metropolitan Opera. But that’s the case with Die Frau ohne Schatten, which made it to the stage for the 66th time Friday night with the opening of this season’s revival of Herbert Wernicke’s 2001 production.
The main hurdle in staging Die Frau is casting, as the opera has five major roles and each demands virtuosic range and Wagnerian projection and physical stamina. There may be more operatic talent in classical music now than there has ever been, so the major issue comes down to coordinating schedules. Fortunately, the stars aligned for this production with an exceptional cast of sopranos Elza van den Heever, Lise Lindstrom, and Nina Stemme, tenor Russell Thomas, and baritone Michael Volle. Met music director Yannick Nézét-Séguin is in the pit.
Friday night, this cast made the challenging opera work, at times gloriously so. Die Frau represents both the best and worst of Strauss. The music is intensely dramatic, full of color, character, and invigorating orchestration. When focused, it has a gripping forward flow that gathers and expresses real emotional power. But with Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Symbolist fairytale libretto, the opera often gets lost in gestures and effects, takes a wrong turn at the end, and suffers from an atavistically dated theme about women.
The opera takes places in a world ruled by the invisible spirit god Keikobad, realized at the human plane in the land of the South Eastern Islands that are ruled by the Emperor (Thomas). Van den Heever is Keikobad’s daughter and the Empress. She was captured by the Emperor on one of his hunts when she was in the form of a gazelle, and is not yet fully human, which is the crux of the drama. This is announced almost immediately by the malevolent Nurse (Stemme) and Keikobad’s Spirit Messenger, the reliably excellent Ryan Speedo Green: the Empress has no shadow (“ohne Schatten”) and has three days to acquire one or else she will be returned to the spirit world (which the Nurse desires) and the Emperor will be turned to stone.
The plot of this means that the Nurse, through her manipulations, tries with the Empress to steal the shadow of the Dyer’s wife (Lindstrom). There is more than a little leap of faith needed here to feel this story, rather the just observe how it works out. More problematic is that “shadow” in this context means “soul,” and what gives women in Die Frau a soul is bearing children. No kids? No soul.
That dated and, for many, offensive idea would never even be presented on a modern stage—unless it’s part of an older work such as this. The challenge Die Frau presents is having performances that are so fine they touch the listener with their beauty and sincerity and exceed the limits of the hoary story.
Friday night, they mostly did so. The music-making, though it had a few flaws, was at a high level. This was outlined by the triangle of van den Heever, Michael Volle as the Dyer, and Nézet-Séguin. The soprano was fantastic all night, with a glowing sound that was consistently full throughout her range, her top tessitura seemed limitless. The Empress has an entrance and aria in Act I that is one of the most difficult in the literature, and van den Heever not only sounded effortless but beyond human. It was stunning and powerful to hear this music sound so natural. As shining at the conclusion as at the beginning, her energy never dropped.
Volle, though a very different singer, had the same sense of easy naturalness. The Dyer desires fatherhood, his wife secretly does not, and Volle’s rich humanity made their relationship feel real. The Dyer does not have the same technical demands as other roles, and Volle took advantage of this to sing with clear, relaxed phrasing that was deeply communicative. Still, in Act III, the part rises to near falsetto, and the size, projection, and loveliness of his sound was as impressive as that of van den Heever.
There was a marked and enjoyable difference in color between the three sopranos. Stemme’s sound was the richest on stage, full of purple shades. Her part may by the most taxing in the opera, not just the amount of music but that the Nurse has to be seductively manipulative and drivingly vituperative in turns. Her energy and vocal force, especially in the lower register where much of the music lies, and the intensity of her emotions were strong all night.
Lindstrom wasn’t as consistent. The quality of her sound was a fine bridge between Empress and Nurse, with a substantial upper range and more shaded color, and she had the projection to carry through the dense orchestration her music—her character goes through the most turmoil. But her intonation in her upper range was often of the near-miss variety. This seemed to be a matter of stamina, as she was exact and often thrilling after periods of rest, but less certain when singing for a time.
Thomas’ part may be the smallest of the leads, but he was terrific. A near-Heldentenor part, his singing was warm, clear, and with a kind of easy confidence. Beyond the voice, his expression was excellent; there was the substantial feeling of emotion and understanding in his characterization, which was especially moving in Act III.
Though there were a few missed notes, and some fatigue in the brass in Act III, the orchestra was superb. Nézet-Séguin kept an excellent pace throughout the long evening, and balances between singers and the large orchestra were ideal. Much of the Act I music is wayward in the score, complicated sequences of gestures that seem to fly off in every direction without clear dramatic purpose, and the conductor couldn’t corral all of these. But that’s a Strauss’s score, which in Act I is full of half-completed ideas and promiscuous changes in direction and mood, but develops more concentration and purpose as the opera goes along.
Wernicke’s staging is ingenious and often dazzling. The spirit world is a literal hall of mirrors—in which the Empress has reflections but no shadow—and his lighting design uses that to absolutely brilliant effect. The simple device of having the heavens rise to reveal the earth—the Dyer’s home—below is also totally effective.
But Strauss imagined this as his Die Zauberflöte, and tries to wrap it with a summation of values from all the leads, save the Nurse. The drama turns into a lecture, and the music loses all invention. Wernicke’s staging also runs out of ideas at this moment, where it seems to slam into a dead end.
Before this, though, there are spectacular pleasures, not the least of which is the ridiculously deep casting that has the likes of tenor Thomas Capobianco, baritone Aleksey Bogdanov, and bass Scott Conner in the small quasi-comedy roles of the Dyer’s brothers, and luminous soprano Laura Wilde in the tiny part of the Guardian of the Threshold, singing so beautifully it was at times hard to tell her apart from van den Heever. With fantastic sounds coming from the wings and voices in the balconies, there is never a dull moment in the Met’s Frau ohne Schatten.
Die Frau ohne Schatten runs through December 19. metopera.org
3 Responses to “Met assembles a Strauss cast for the ages in an astonishing “Frau ohne Schatten””
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Posted Nov 30, 2024 at 6:31 pm by Jack Firestone
Heard the final dress Tuesday. Everything Grella said and more. One of the most exquisite Fraus I have heard.
Not my favorite production, but musically glorious. Exquisite orchestra playing and my favorite Yannick performance to date.
Only thing that irritated me is that this is not appearing on Met in HD which has never shown a FROSCH. Gelb really missed an opportunity to share this magnificent production and cast.
Posted Nov 30, 2024 at 10:25 pm by CottonEyedSooner
Interesting to read your evaluation of Stemme. I was listening to the live broadcast, and to me Stemme was almost unlistenable. It was hard not to turn it off, but the rest of the cast was really very good. I agree that Lindstrom had an unsure top that was sometimes just a scream. But overall she was better than one normally finds.
If only Mignon Dunn or Jane Henschel were still available for the Amme.
Posted Dec 01, 2024 at 3:20 am by steve on nights
My first Die Frau, 1984 LOC. Have never recovered. When this opera is done well it blunts much reality, past, present and future. Glad to read this review.