Kirill Petrenko conducts Strauss’s “The Woman without a Shadow”

Can one base one’s own happiness on the unhappiness of others? That is the central theme of Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow), one of Richard Strauss’s most fascinating operas. The emperor’s wife needs a shadow to save her husband from turning to stone and to have children, so she must buy the shadow and fertility of a poor dyer’s wife. Kirill Petrenko conducts the splendid drama in a concert performance.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Kirill Petrenko

Clay Hilley

Elza van den Heever

Michaela Schuster

Wolfgang Koch

Miina-Liisa Värelä

Programme Guide

Richard Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow), opera in three acts op. 65 Clay Hilley tenor (The Emperor) Elza van den Heever soprano (The Empress) Michaela Schuster mezzo-soprano (Nurse) Wolfgang Koch bass (Barak, the Dyer) Miina-Liisa Värelä soprano (The Dyer’s Wife) Bogdan Baciu baritone (The Messenger of Keikobad) Evan LeRoy Johnson tenor (The Apparition of a Youth) Agnieszka Adamczak soprano (The Guardian of the Threshold, The Voice of a Falcon, Second Voice of the Unborn Children, Second Servant of the Empress, Second Child) Ksenia Nikolaeva mezzo-soprano (A Voice from Above, Fifth Voice of the Unborn Children, Sixth Voice of the Unborn Children) Johannes Weisser baritone (The One-eyed Man, Barak’s brother) Nathan Berg baritone (The One-Armed Man, Barak’s brother) Peter Hoare tenor (The Hunchback, Barak’s brother) Serafina Starke soprano (First Voice of the Unborn Children, First Servant of the Empress, First Child) Flore van Meerssche soprano (Third Child, Third Voice of the Unborn Children) Dorottya Láng mezzo-soprano (Third Servant of the Empress, Fourth Voice of the Unborn Children, Fourth Child) Shannon Keegan mezzo-soprano (Third Servant of the Empress, Fourth Voice of the Unborn Children, Fourth Child) Theodore Platt baritone (First Voice of the Town Watchmen) Gerrit Illenberger baritone (Second Voice of the Town Watchmen) Thomas Mole baritone (Third Voice of the Town Watchmen) Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe NFM Choir Wroclaw

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Kirill Petrenko conducts Strauss’s “The Woman without a Shadow”

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