Die Frau ohne Schatten

While there is a small preference to 'Der Rosenkavalier', Elektra', 'Salome' and 'Ariadne auf Naxos' when it comes to Strauss operas, 'Die Frau Ohne Schatten' is one of his best.

Its story may be a touch complicated and a touch sprawling, but it and its mix of realism and poverty and the magical and exotic spiritual world fascinates and the music is some of Strauss' most beautiful, the final scene is especially stunning. Of the four productions (so far seen, not sure if there's more) on DVD, this is my least favourite by quite a large margin. The productions conducted by Solti and Sawallisch are superb, and for this viewer near-perfect, and the Thielmann-conducted performance is both interesting (as well as being outstanding musically) and frustrating (with a mess of a final scene stage-direction-wise).

This Mariinsky performance is on the most part uninvolving and the musical values at best are a very mixed bag, with its moments but also some major problems. Starting with the visuals, the contrast between the earthly and the spiritual is clearly defined and the forest world is undoubtedly beautiful. Even for an earthly-representing set, the laundrette setting is quite dreary and drab and the spiritual world is at times too darkly lit, lacks magic and is not exotic enough. While some of the costumes are fantastically oriental, some are an ill-fit for the singers, in particular the Empress should look ethereal but instead looks a frump. The projections didn't add anything, the worst of them pretty risible and the same goes for the stage effects. The video directing is suitably fluid.

Jonathan Kent has been responsible for some great productions, like 'Turn of the Screw' and 'Tosca', but, not helped by the mostly static acting, this sees him at his most lifeless and uninvolving, and although the two worlds are clearly constructed and he understands the point of the opera well enough it sees him also at his least coherent because the story is so dully told. It completely lacks imagination, and only comes to life in the final scene which is very nicely done and a scene that is mostly difficult to ruin (though the Thielmann-conducted performance has demonstrated that it can be done). Similarly, the choreography is incoherent and innocuous, a dishonourable mention going to the Empress' nightmare scene.

Musically, the performance is a very mixed bag as aforementioned. It has its moments, though nothing is outstanding. The orchestra show evidence of beautiful tone, especially the strings, but one can't get past the feeling that the score is too heavy for it with sometimes too lightweight a sound and a lack of musicianship, warmth and line, which is so uncharacteristic of them (Strauss' music is incredibly difficult, especially in this opera, but it really does show for me in the orchestral playing). The offstage voices too sound distant, and it can be to do with the less-than-resonant sound quality. Valery Gergiev's conducting is uneven. Parts are mushy and a dirge-like drag and, particularly in Act 3, parts are rushed and like Gergiev couldn't wait to get to the end of the performance. Despite being one of the most enigmatic and living-the-emotion (if not exactly subtle) conductors in recent memory, Gergiev also looks surprisingly nervous. People won't be happy with the cuts, Act 3 fares the worst and the snip of Act 2 really jars, luckily Act 1 is unscathed.

Similarly, the performances are rarely disastrous, neither are they outstanding. The only disaster is Avgust Amanov's Emperor, his singing is strangulated and unmusical (never less than loud) and his acting is stiff as a wooden board, stand-and-deliver and it was abundantly clear that he didn't have a clue what he was singing about or have any chemistry with the other singers. Vocally, the standout is Edem Umerov, his singing occasionally has some gruff moments but mostly it's a warm and mellifluous sound, and his interpretation is suitably sympathetic. He also has the best German pronunciation of the cast (and he engages with it the most), which is saying a lot because most of the diction with everybody else is so atrocious it's impossible to understand, the Empress' spoken monologue sees Mlada Khudoley clearly struggling. Which is a shame, because Khodoley is quite good as the Empress, ethereal and heartfelt (though she sometimes doesn't do a lot with the static stage direction) with a warm, lyrical tone, if also rather over-taxed at the start of Act 3, she is far too human to begin with and there is a general lack of genuine engagement with the text.

Dramatically, the Nurse of Olga Savova and the Dyer's Wife of Olga Sergeeva come off best. Savova is deliciously serpentine and forthright, avoiding the temptation to dissolve into camp and ham. Her singing is rich and powerful with some thrilling moments in the most taxing role of the opera (and one of the hardest of any of Strauss' operas, considered un-singable in Strauss' time), however it is unsteady in places and her diction is unintelligible and overly guttural. Despite an unpleasant wobble in some of the last act and she does try-too-hard on occasions and too reliant on Gergiev on others, Sergeeva throws herself into the role with plenty of fire and intensity.

Overall, not a complete disaster but considering that this is one of Strauss' best operas this was underwhelming. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I don't know what possessed the usually reliable librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal to write this. It has been compared with The Magic Flute but, to me, A Midsummer Night's Dream came more to mind. We have three levels of characters, the spirits, the regal and the ordinary people. The story, as far as it is possible to summarise it, concerns an emperor and an empress who cannot have children. This is because the empress is the daughter of Keikobad, the king of the spirits and she has lost her shadow during her transformation into human form. For some reason that I don't understand, not having a shadow is symbolic of being unable to bear children. Her nurse suggests popping down to earth to see if they can pick up a shadow from someone who does not need one. They end up in the home of Barak, a dyer, and his wife. The dyer's wife does not have a name even though she is the main character in the opera. She is unsympathetic to Barak's urge to have children on account of their impoverished circumstances. In fact, she also wants him to kick out his three disabled brothers who live with them. If you must know, one has only one arm, another has only one eye and the third is a hunchback. The wife readily agrees to sell her shadow but later regrets it. The empress then has second thoughts mainly because she is impressed by what a good, honest man Barak is. It turns out that this has all been a test and when she refuses to take the wife's shadow she acquires one of her own. The opera ends with a joyful quartet with the two happy couples looking forward to having many children.

I cannot say that I was enamoured of the theme. It all sounded like Pro-Life propaganda, only more so. There is a chorus of unborn children but, more accurately, they are not yet conceived children. It's as if there were all these children waiting to be conceived if only their parents were not so selfish.

This could have been a disaster in the hands of a German postdramatic director. In fact director Jonathan Kent plays it with a pretty straight bat, possibly taking the view that the opera is so weird that it does not need extra layers of symbolism. He successfully manages to convey to the stage most of von Hofmannstahl's weird imagery although the chorus of unborn children singing in a pan of frying fish is quite a big ask. Even with a synopsis in front of me and with Kent's clear staging I struggled to make sense of the plot.

It is, though, quite beautiful to look at with a fabulous castle for the emperor and empress who look like a pimped up version of the king and queen of hearts. Barak's hut is also a fabulous set. It is a room that serves as a garage, a launderette for his dying business and a bed-sitter. I was impressed by way that Mariinsky kept changing the scenes from one to the other. I don't know whether this was done in real time but I suspect that it was because Strauss provides lots of intermezzi to cover these changes.

From a musical point of view these intermezzi are almost the best bits of the opera. There is a huge orchestra, under Valery Gergiev that makes the most of the sumptuous tunes and luscious harmonies. To be honest, the vocal lines do not add much to what the orchestra is doing. The exception to this, if you are still awake at the end of this long opera, is in the final act. Here we have the vocal lines soaring over the orchestra, particularly in the joyful final quartet which is somewhat reminiscent of Der Rosenkavalier. Edem Umerov is a lovable Barak in his one size fits nobody tee shirt. Mlada Khudolei gives a touching performance as the unhappy empress with some frighteningly high and complex music. The star of the show is Olga Sergevea as The Wife in another high soprano part of stunning complexity. She gives a gut-wrenching performance as a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown.