A Frau ohne Schatten on a Freudian plane
by Moore Parker

Die Frau ohne Schatten
Vienna State Opera

This is probably the most controversial production that the Vienna State Opera has seen in recent times - the action transported by Robert Carsen onto a Freudian plane in which the Empress' inability to bear children (symbolized by her inability to cast a shadow) is put down to a guilt complex which was caused by circumstances surrounding the death of her father. I happen to favour the approach, and find the "alter ego" interaction between the Empress and the Dyer's Wife (implied through costume and stage work) a moving and enhancing facet, despite the occasional conflict between word and logic. Masterful staging, whether or not you like the concept!

The cast is, in great part, new in this revival.

Cheryl Studer, singing the Kaiserin in this production for the first time presents a large-scale and vibrant portrayal. Her very distinctive timbre and her use of words create a special "presence" which lingers in the memory well after the performance. Jon Frederic West brings stentorian tone to the Kaiser and negotiates the role's testing tessitura with apparent ease. Franz Grundheber is one of those rare singers who always seems to perfectly mould his talent as a singing-actor to suit the role - whether it's Iago, Telramund - or Barak. A fabulous performance! While Luna deVol, as the Dyer's Wife managed to create a believable figure, I found her hectoring vocal approach with its wayward vibrato rather tiresome. Ildiko Szönyi was a solid Amme. The smaller roles were all strongly cast with some quite heavenly "unborn" tones making their contribution to the evening. Judging by the applause, Peter Schneider (conductor) and the orchestra was the stars of the evening. There were certainly many stirring moments - but alas not the magical ones which have thankfully been preserved on the old live recordings from this house with Böhm and Karajan at the helm.

I spoke with Cheryl Studer, and she had this to say about the Vienna production. "There are a lot of things that work for my character - on the other hand a lot of things that don't work. One of the things I dislike very much is when we talk about various requisites that should be part of the actions and reactions and we just don't have them to work with. While there are new ideas that he (Carsen) was able to bring out, it's like many of these contemporary versions of opera Regie - and that is it's almost like a kind of a study. I'd like to have these kind of things done at university level, so that everyone gets different kinds of insights to the piece. But by the time we get to the professional level I think we should bring the pieces the way the composer and the librettist - who really knew what they wanted - (intended). I think we should stick at least to some degree to their wishes. For example Wagner and Strauss really gave so much detail - and it's not that I'm against new ideas - but I think they should be done in a very careful way. And I think one of the problems we're running into now is that we've changed things and turned things over for the last - I don't know how many years…since the Felsenstein school. In a way we're almost getting tired of that now because that's almost a routine - seeing everything done in a sterile way ….people coming on with their attache´cases and dressed up like doctors…this kind of thing. In a way that's becoming normal and now we're getting tired of it and people are going back to period costumes and saying "Wow, that's something new and something special!"