Die Frau Ohne Schatten
Spring Training for Your Ears
Description: Spring Training for Your Ears | Die Frau Ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss.
Welcome to a three-part series of Spring Training for the Ears. We focus on Richard Strauss’ great work, Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Three pandemic-era shows that will get you ready for the remarkable story and score.
Plot Summary
“Die Frau ohne Schatten” is an opera by Richard Strauss with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The story unfolds in a mythical empire and revolves around the Empress, who is half-spirit and half-mortal, and her quest to gain a human shadow within three days to prevent her husband, the Emperor, from being turned to stone by her father, Keikobad, the king of the spirits.
Act I
The Emperor of the Southeastern Islands once captured a gazelle that transformed into a woman, whom he married. This woman is the Empress, daughter of Keikobad, and she lacks a shadow, symbolizing her inability to bear children. According to Keikobad’s decree, if she does not acquire a shadow by the end of the twelfth moon, she will be reclaimed by her father and her husband will be petrified.
The Empress, aided by her Nurse, seeks out Barak, a dyer whose wife is unhappy due to childlessness. The Nurse offers Barak’s wife visions of luxury in exchange for her shadow. The wife agrees to deny Barak for three days while the Nurse and Empress serve as her servants. Barak returns home to find his marital bed split.
Act II
The Nurse conjures up a young man from the wife’s dreams. Barak’s wife refuses his offerings and confesses her pact with the Nurse, driving Barak to thoughts of murder. However, an earthquake swallows them both before any harm is done.
Act III
Barak and his wife are imprisoned separately but realize their love for each other during their solitude. Meanwhile, the Empress rejects the Nurse’s deceitful methods and enters Keikobad’s temple. There, she hears Barak and his wife searching for each other and refuses to steal the wife’s shadow despite being shown an image of the Emperor turned to stone.
Her act of compassion earns her a shadow from her father without having to steal it. The Emperor is restored, Barak and his wife are reunited, and they all sing praises to their unborn children.
Opera Box Score Is
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