Strauss: Die Frau Ohne Schatten

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable
The fairytale nature of Die Frau ohne Schatten presents some challenges for the more experimental stage director used to modernising works, so it was always going to be interesting to see how Christof Loy was going to rework the story for the 2011 Salzburg Festival. Even by Loy's standards for courting controversy through a very personal conceptual approach, the Salzburg Festpiele Die Frau ohne Schatten must be one of the strangest conceits applied to any opera production. Not unsurprisingly, Loy dispenses with the fairytale setting entirely, ignores the stage directions, would appear to pay scant heed to the libretto, and instead sets Die Frau ohne Schatten in a recording studio in Vienna in 1955.

The idea of making the performance the performance, so to speak, isn't anything new in Loy's minimalist semi-staged productions, but this really takes the idea to another level altogether. The set is built to resemble, in meticulous reconstructed detail, the legendary Viennese...

Best Frau on record, but not for the first timer
I approached this DVD with trepidation. It had received a couple good reviews. But I didn't like the idea of recreating its first audio recording. A Frau with no stage magic? Sounded like a cop out with all the stage magic just ignored.
But just a few minutes into the opera I was hooked. Not by the stage picture but by the sound. Thielemann draws forth the most glorious sound from the Vienna Phil I have ever heard. It is a beauteous burnished gold. Thielemann takes a leisurely approach to the score, and he also gives us the complete Frau unlike most performances. He is over ten minutes longer than Solti (also complete), and the slow pace allows the piece to blossom. This is fantastically beautiful writing with not a hint of the bombast that is usually made of much of the score.
Once the shock of the stage picture was over I was drawn in by the acting. This is a Frau with feeling. These characters may start out recording an opera but they quickly morph into their...

A Revelartory Interpretation
Christof Loy's Salzburg production of Die Frau Ohne Schatten has aroused considerable comment both negative positive and has been documented on Amazon's pages .Accordingly I am not going to dwell on the production to any degree. If you are not aware of the production I refer you to YouTube; the clips provided should give you a chance to arrive at your own conclusion.

Suffice it to say that since I already had the Solti and Swallisch DVD's I welcomed a regie interpretation. Loy would not have been my first choice as a director in view of his Entfurung from the Liceo which left a great deal to be desired. Not I hasten to add from the performance which I found exciting, but the production which took Minimalism to a new high (or low?). Loy's Frosch , however, has converted me to his aesthetic in large part due to the musical aspects of the performance and Thielemann's conducting and the playing of the Vienna Philharmonic, and in particular to the singing of Schwanenwilms,...

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