Love, Empathy, and Miracle: Opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten at the Met

The Metropolitan Opera recently concluded its final night of Richard Strauss’s breathtaking fantasy Die Frau Ohne Schatten (The Lady Without a Shadow), featuring Yannick Nézet-Séguin as the orchestra conductor. Although not as popular as Salome, Strauss’s other opera this season, Die Frau Ohne Schatten is, as said in an interview with soprano Elza van den Heever, “one that people fall deeply in love with once they encounter it.” Indeed, though the opera’s long and confusing story, along with several moments of complicated music, makes it a difficult opera to watch, it contains enough sublimity and incredibly powerful moments for one to be intoxicated by the experience.

The opera, consisting of three acts, tells the tale of Empress (Elza van den Heever), a woman who is half human and half spirit, and her quest to find a shadow. If she fails to find one within three days, she will be forced to return to her father—the spirit god Keikobad (who never actually appears on stage), and her husband, the Emperor (Russell Thomas), will be transformed into stone. With the help of her nurse (Nina Stemme), the Empress locates the home of a dyer (Michael Volle) and his wife (Lisa Lindstrom), who is unhappy with her marriage. The Nurse tricks the wife into giving up her shadow by conjuring an apparition of the most handsome man she has ever seen. On the third night, as the deal is about to be made, the wife confesses her agreement to the dyer and his brothers. Furious, the dyer attempts to kill her but is stopped by his brothers. The Empress refuses to take the shadow, as she believes that she has ruined the couple’s marriage; meanwhile, the dyer’s wife becomes overridden with guilt. When the Empress returns to her palace, she finds the Emperor stiff and lifeless, like a statue. The curse has befallen; the Guardian of the Threshold (Laura Wilde) urges the Empress to claim the wife’s shadow to save the Emperor, but the Empress refuses. Her empathy for humans exemplifies her benevolence, so Keikobad removes the curse, miraculously returns the shadow to the dyer’s wife, and grants a new one to the Empress. 

The opera utilizes an expansive orchestra (featuring a pit orchestra, an organ, glass harmonica, two celestas, a thunder machine, and a very colorful percussion section with the addition of a slapstick, castanets, and Chinese gongs), as is typical for Struass’s work. At times, the orchestra produces loud, earth-shattering music; at others, its sound is tender and sublime. One of the most beautiful and mesmerizing moments of the opera is in Act 2 Scene 2: the cello begins a rhapsodic solo that transforms into a breathtakingly romantic passage accompanied by strings. The Emperor, a tenor, steps on stage and begins his aria: he tenderly expresses his love for his wife before taking on a harsher tone upon realizing that she is missing. The section fully demonstrates Strauss’s ability to create an incredibly dreamy atmosphere through spiritually beautiful melodies and dissonant yet pleasing harmonies. Another surreal moment is at the end of Act 3, when the voices of the children's chorus emerge from the side of the concert hall, creating a celestial atmosphere in the theater. They represent the angels who laud and celebrate the Empress’s decision and her success.

The Met’s modern production of the opera (the set and on-stage performance designed by Herbert Wernicke in 2001) divides the two main settings—the spiritual realm and the dyer’s home—by using an elevator that lifts the front portion of the stage. The lower level is the dyer’s home, a factory-like hall that serves as both a living room and a workplace. The upper level (representing the spiritual realm) is rather minimalistic: a giant empty space with mirrors as the walls and a reflective, crystalized floor. The incorporation of mirrors is simply brilliant: they create multiple reflections of the stage, which is especially mesmerizing during times such as Act 1 Scene 1, when a bright red falcon performs a dance that, after being magnified and reflected by the mirrors, simultaneously resembles a blazing flame and a blossoming flower. The use of lighting is also very effective, especially in the last scene of Act 3, when the stage’s lighting takes on numerous different forms: it morphs into aqueous golden waves, shining directly onto the audience, and turns the entire stage blue and red, creating an intense and terrifying atmosphere.

The dramatic soprano van den Heever highlighted the Empress’s complex character through both her singing and acting. She presented an initially solemn and royal Empress, one who becomes human as guilt overwhelms her. Lindstrom was also excellent in developing the multilayered and realistic character of the dyer’s wife. Lindstrom fully showcased the wife’s annoyance towards the dyer and her inner transformation as she realizes how much she actually loves him. Thomas’s performance was also notable, particularly his beautiful delivery of the Emperor’s aria with deep, rich emotions.

The performance, including two intermissions, lasted four hours. It had highs and lows and wasn’t exciting or beautiful all throughout; the characters are complex, and the story is, at times, hard to understand. Even with the synopsis of the program, it is hard to completely follow what was occurring on the stage: many things were unexplained and left to imagination, and the characters’ internal transformations and motivations weren’t developed very well. A substantial portion of the story feels overly long and dull, with very complex musical progressions that are hard to get excited about. Yet, the Met’s staging and its singers make the opera transcend being just a musical piece; it becomes a mesmerizing experience for the audience. Die Frau Ohne Schatten is a complicated opera that contains a confusing story and complex musical ideas. Though it may be a challenging opera to fully stay awake for, it is brilliant, expressive, and intricate, showcasing how much depth this art form, with all of its elements—music, performance, and staging—can possess.