Hofmannsthal wrote to Strauss in 1911 that the new opera was to Zauberflöte as the Rosenkavalier was to Figaro. And indeed, much in this work is reminiscent of Mozart's "grand opera": the encounter between different social classes, the fairytale-like plot charged with high symbolic value, but above all the awareness of an elementary turning point in time that calls the previous order into question. And here, as there, realisation is only achieved through difficult trials... 

About the work

According to Hugo von Hofmannsthal in a 1911 letter to Richard Strauss, in which he set out his idea for another collaboration between the two men, their next opera would be to The Magic Flute what The Knight of the Rose had been to Figaro. And the work that premiered a full eight years later did indeed have strong echoes of Mozart’s »grand opéra«: there is the clash of different social classes, the fairytale-like, highly symbolic storyline and above all the strong feeling that ground-breaking change is underway which is challenging accepted orthodoxy and forcing issues of human interaction and values to the top of the political agenda. And in both cases enlightenment is gained only through ordeal and adversity. Here the shadow has a pivotal function as a metaphor for female fertility: the barren Empress and her nurse bargain with the dyer’s wife for her shadow. Only when the Empress rebels against achieving marital happiness and maternal contentment at someone else’s expense does a path to social harmony open up.

About the production

Tobias Kratzer has chosen this monumental fantasy opera to close his cycle of Strauss works at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Where Arabella explores how hard it can be to even start a relationship based on equal rights and Intermezzo depicts what can happen in a marriage that has gone stale, in The Woman without a Shadow Kratzer focuses on the challenge of rekindling a bond that has weakened through years of poor nurturing – an approach that extends far beyond the domestic sphere due to the ethical issues surrounding surrogate motherhood.