The Shadow of the double
by Fabiana Crepaldi
Die Frau ohne Schatten ( The Woman Without a Shadow ) , the fourth opera by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, is simply fascinating. Considering its beauty and the passion it awakens in the public, it is much less performed than it should be on the American continent. This is for a reason: to putDie Frau on stage, you need a good, big orchestra (with 176 musicians and good instrumental soloists); a great conductor, who knows how to extract a clear sound; a director who is not reluctant to put a story on stage, without wanting to transform it into something harsh and realistic; and five top-notch vocal soloists, capable of embodying their roles and singing the nuances, the high notes and overcoming the traps that Strauss constantly reserves for them. SemperoperDresden has offered all of this in its new production. In Brazil, this opera has never been made, and it is not for lack of an orchestra: it is past time for OSESP to call a good conductor, good soloists and promote the Brazilian premiere of this masterpiece by Strauss, even if semi-staged.
Die Frau was the opera chosen by the excellent Christian Thielermann , an authority on Strauss's music, to say goodbye to his position as principal conductor of the Semperoper Dresden. It was quite an opportunity to see him in action.
The shadow is a classic symbol of the double and motherhood, and these two meanings merge in the opera. In the New Testament, when the angel announced to Mary that she would conceive, he told her that the Lord would overshadow her. In literature (and opera), the absence (or loss) of the shadow, of this connection to the Earth, is usually associated with the inability to have children.
In his book The Double – a psychoanalytic study , published in 1925, the Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank points to the shadow as a symbol of the double. It is, therefore, no mere chance that the double is already in the structure of Die Frau ohne Schatten . As Hofmannsthal wrote in a letter to Strauss, the opera is, at the same time, “romantic in the old fashion and a work that could only have been born in our time” ; “real and symbolic” . Furthermore, it deals with two worlds, the world of spirits (who have no shadow) and the world of human beings (concrete, carnal, who cast shadows). It tells the story of two couples who need to go through some learning stages and some tests to reach a stage of maturity, of complicity. Die Frau follows the model of Die Zauberflöte , by Mozart, in which two couples of different natures – Tamino and Pamina; Papageno and Papagena – need to pass tests.
In Die Frau , one of the couples is very human, lives a hard life with very real problems (Barak, the good and patient Dyer, and his temperamental wife); and the other lives in a kind of intermediate plane between the world of spirits and that of men (the Kaiser , Emperor, human, and the Kaiserin , Empress, who has no shadow and is the daughter of Keikobad, the master of the world of spirits) . In the first couple, the dyers seem to have lost their way; in the second, Emperor and Empress seem not to have met yet. The men in these two couples live trapped in the past. Although Barak focuses all his energy on work, on daily life, on supporting his family, he is tied to the image of his father, of his paternal home, he has taken on the responsibility of taking care of his brothers, as his father did, and dreams of having a family numerous. The Emperor found his wife in the form of a white gazelle when he was hunting with the help of his red falcon. As soon as she was captured, she transformed into a woman. And the Emperor relives this story throughout the opera – both in the libretto and in the music, it is a recurring theme, which is characterized by a lyrical, passionate melody, one of the most beautiful passages ever heard in an opera.
Furthermore: the Emperor only knows how to be a lover and a hunter; Barak, lover and provider. As a consequence, the Empress cannot fully humanize herself, she cannot achieve a shadow, and the Dyer, although she has a shadow, cannot extract the fruits of her human condition.
There is a fifth character who moves between the two worlds, who forms a duo with the Empress: the Nurse who accompanies the Empress, who must watch over her. The Nurse comes from the world of spirits: she is, in her own way, faithful to the Empress, and repudiates men. She is a kind of fusion between the Queen of the Night and a manipulative Mephistopheles, a devil who wants to separate the Empress from human beings, who wants her to return to the world of spirits.
The central conflict is a curse that hung over the Emperor-Empress couple: if within twelve moons the Empress did not acquire a shadow, she would have to return to her father, in the world of spirits, and the Emperor – who was failing to make her if she incarnated – she would turn into stone. Three days before the deadline, the falcon comes to remind the Empress of the curse, and, with the help of her Mistress, she leaves for the human world in order to obtain the shadow of some woman. The two meet the Dyer and the Dyer. The Dyer is unhappy with the life she leads, especially with the presence of Barak's three brothers in their house. She is easy prey for the Nurse, who convinces her to exchange her shadow for a world of illusions.
The loss of the shadow is a theme present in 19th century literature. One prime example is the title character of The Wonderful Story of Peter Schlemihl , by Adelbert von Chamiso. Poor and despised by society, Schlemihl is seduced by a mysterious man in gray (the devil, of course!), and ends up agreeing to give up his shadow in exchange for wealth that will never end. The problem is that, without the shadow, his wealth is of no use, because he becomes repudiated, he is a different person, in which some curse lives. When he falls in love, the bride's father gives him three days to find a shadow – which he can't do and, evidently, ends up losing his bride.
Another example is Anna, from the poem by Nicolaus Lenau, which, according to the title, is based on a Swedish legend. Seeing her image reflected in the lake, Anna is dazzled by her own beauty and wishes that nothing would spoil that beauty – a classic case of narcissism. When asked to marry her, Anna seeks out an old witch and exchanges her shadow, linked to the ability to have children, for the preservation of this beautiful image. She had seven children unborn and waiting to be born. During the spell, the wind blew the mill seven times and, each time, Anna heard the murmur of one of these children who would no longer come into the world.
In addition to Anna's story, shadow and reflection appear together in the short story As Aventuras da Noite de São Silvestre (also known as The Lost Reflection ), by ETA Hoffmann. In the story, Erasmus Spikher, who gave his reflection to a courtesan who was nothing more than an instrument of the devil himself, is repudiated by his family and society. He starts to wander in search of a reflection and meets Peter Schlemihl. In the story, then, the man without reflection and the man without shadow meet. Both have something in common: they lost part of their personalities, they allowed themselves to be divided by the devil (the one who divides).
Schlemihl exchanged shadow for wealth, for the promise of a comfortable life; Anna exchanged the shadow for the narcissistic and self-centered reflection. Die Frau Ohne Schatten follows the same line: offering a mirror to the Dyer (she didn't have one), and immersing her in a world of illusions, including a ghostly lover, who is nothing more than the projection of her own desires, the Nurse proposes to the Dyer that she sell her shadow for this illusory image of luxury and beauty, which she was able to experience for brief moments. The Dyer accepted immediately: “for the image of this mirror, I will give my soul, my life” .
Like Anna in the poem, the Dyer also hears the murmurs of her unborn children. Anna would have seven children, she hears the murmur coming from the mill seven times; the Dyer has five children destined for her, and hears them through the five fish that were in a pot.
The Nanny's manipulation further distances the dyer couple. At a given moment, the woman even tries to free herself from her ghostly lover, from the world of illusions. She calls her husband, but Barak understands nothing, he only understands the material world, communication between the two is impossible. The situation culminates with the woman confessing an infidelity that, in reality, she did not commit, and Barak, until then always good and patient, no longer sees her shadow, and even threatens to kill her.
Reinforcing the double in the structure of the work, in the meantime, in a musically stunning scene, the Emperor smells humans, realizes that the Empress has been with humans and thinks about killing her – but he cannot, he is not capable.
At this point, the Empress, with a strong feeling of guilt and deep empathy for human beings, regrets the attempt to obtain the Dyer's shadow (which was stained with blood), and makes a true humanist speech. In the final test, before Keikobad (who never appears or sings), after a long ordeal, she refuses to drink from a golden fountain that would bring her the Dyer's shadow and save the Emperor: Ich will nicht! ( I don't want to! ), shouts the Empress. From that moment on, she gains a shadow, the Emperor is saved, and Barak and his wife are reunited.
More than fertility, the shadow is linked to the possibility of generating fruit, of leaving marks (or shadows) in the world. More broadly, the shadow represents the human condition: the Empress acquires the shadow when she humanizes herself, when she begins to understand human dramas and suffering through Barak and his wife – something that her husband, who only knew how to be a lover and hunter, had not been able to transmit.
In addition to the unborn children, whose voices are heard several times during the opera, the figure of the father is also strong. If Elektra , the first fruit of the Strauss-Hofmannsthal partnership, begins with Agamemnon's theme, Die Frau begins with Keikobad's. Both themes are short and serious. In both operas, the respective fathers (Agamemnon and Keikobad) never appear, but they are present throughout, especially in the music, and their respective daughters always address them. Furthermore, Keikobad is one of the few characters who has a name in the opera – the other is Barak, who dreams of becoming a father.
It is also necessary to remember that, as Hofmannsthal noted in his letter to Strauss, despite being a romantic opera, with all the romantic tradition, the work is also a result of its time. Die Frau was composed in a troubled time, during the First World War. It is no coincidence, then, that this aspiration for union, for understanding, for humanization.
Two worlds connect on stage
I could not hope for anything better and more appropriate than the new production by David Bösch that I saw in Dresden. With the beautiful sets by Patrick Bannwart , Bösch made us move between the ethereal world of spirits and the concrete world of Barak and his wife, with the colors and toxic substances used by the dyer. In the first scene, we see the Emperor, the Empress and the Nurse in a non-defined environment, without colors, in shades of white, with white curtains and some projections (some shadows), almost without furniture – just a bed. In one of the most beautiful and touching moments of the performance, when the falcon arrives to tell the Empress that her time is running out, and she hears his cry, we do not see a falcon: while we hear, coming from the side, Lea 's beautiful song -ann Dunbar , we see feathers falling, as if they were the materialization of tears. The huge falcon will only appear later – and it is this huge mechanical falcon, in my opinion, that is the only element that clashes with the aesthetics of the production.
A kind of elevator connects the two worlds – and not by chance, this elevator also serves as both the falcon's house and the entrance to Barak's house. This is how the Empress and Nurse are transported to the world of men. As indicated in the libretto, in the house where Barak and his wife live, dyeing materials are mixed with domestic furniture. The house was divided in half, a double room, with two rooms. On the left side, a washing machine, an armchair and a television; on the right side, the bedroom. Just ahead, a barrel written “toxic”. When this barrel is opened, a little smoke comes out. Objects enter and leave it as if in the form of magic, mixing the toxicity of the real world with that of the Nurse's magic. It is from this vat that dolls come out, symbolizing the children yet to come, and it is in it that the Dyer, when she renounces motherhood, throws these same dolls.
The representation of the Dyer's dreams, in the moments when she is carried away by the Nurse's illusions, is quite efficient. Fabio Antoci 's lighting transforms the environment. From the same elevator that transported the Empress and the Nurse, half-naked men emerge, some feathers, showing an even somewhat grotesque, very carnal costume – nothing that, as in Peter Schlemihl's story, represented social ascension. It was the dream that was within reach of the Dyer's mind: an impossible dream that looks like a show she saw on the television in the house.
In the third act, when the Empress passes the final test, we see a colorless, ethereal scene, typical of the world of spirits. The environment, however, is populated by metallic structures of empty carts.
An object that stands out throughout the representation is the pair of yellow gloves worn by the Dyer. They are important protective equipment in the dyer's manual work, they are what protect her from toxic substances. The Empress takes possession of these gloves (the shadow?) and carries them to the final test.
Moana Stemberger 's costumes helped to contrast the lightness of the world of spirits – especially the Empress – with the concrete world of the dyer couple. If the Empress's dress was light and flowing, Barak and his wife's clothes were made of heavier, more rustic fabrics.
Bösch doesn't change the ending of the opera – it would be unfair to accuse him of that. The director, however, does not ignore the fact that the Nurse was condemned to wander the world of men. Like the cherub expelled from heaven, she comes to cause divisions. This is what we see her doing at the end of the opera. Accompanied by beautiful music, the two couples are celebrating the lieto fine when the Nurse appears, divides the two parts of the house and, with her, the couples: Barak and the Empress go one way, the Emperor and the Dyer, the other. . In the end, only the Nurse is left, in an empty, ethereal, colorless environment, similar to the one in which the opera began.
This ending becomes even more impactful when you have, as Ama, an interpreter of the caliber of the excellent German mezzosoprano Evelyn Herlitzius . She was the greatest artist on stage. And that's no small feat, because she was surrounded by giants. In addition to being scenically perfect, impactful – she dominated the scene – Herlitzius knows how to masterfully handle the color of her voice. A voice that was sometimes warm and authoritative, sometimes light and seductive, which changed color depending on the intonation. Precise singing, including the scandalous high notes that Strauss presented to the mezzosoprano in the last act. She perfectly tackled a role that covers a wide range of textures and presents serious harmonic challenges. Her Nurse knows how to seduce and manipulate the other characters – except the messenger from Keikobad, very well played by Andreas Bauer Kanabas , over whom the Nurse has no power.
The Dyer was inspired by Pauline, wife of Richard Strauss. Hofmannsthal even explained the idea in a letter to Strauss: “as a model for one of the women, we can very well, with all discretion, take your wife” . Lotte Lehmann, who created the role of Dyer, says, in her engaging book Five Operas and Richard Strauss , that Pauline was a person with agile intelligence and a caustic tongue, who behaved like a shrew. No matter how great her husband's fame was, Pauline made a point of making it clear that he was nothing more than a peasant and that her music didn't come close to Massenet's. None of this, however, affected Strauss, who just smiled. Lehmann says that he told her that all the admiration in the world interested him less than a single tantrum from Pauline.
Miina-Liisa Värelä plays a Dyer whose nerves become inflamed throughout the opera, as Strauss's musical writing takes her to a higher pitch. Her character is interesting precisely because she is not caricatured at all, and visibly evolves: she is a normal woman, with her frustrations, who lives with a man who is a lover and provider, but does not show any emotion; Guided by the Nurse, she expresses this dissatisfaction and, then, becomes angry, her tongue becomes sharper, and her powerful voice, more incisive.
Although Barak is clearly not inspired by Richard Strauss, he reacts in the same way to the woman's attacks, he doesn't get too upset, he even seems to take some pleasure in it. Oleksandr Pushniak was a great Barak, both scenically and vocally: sensitive, with an engaging voice and not at all caricatured. His body posture, even when he wasn't singing, already conveyed the character's awkward tranquility.
The Emperor has a relatively small role, but his are the most beautiful, most lyrical, most melodious lines in the opera. The wonderful singing of American tenor Eric Cutler still rings in my ears ! A bright, powerful timbre; a legato and passionate song , with perfect phrasing.
“The Dyer and the Dyer are, without a doubt, the strongest characters, but they are not the ones who matter: their destiny is subordinate to that of the Empress” , Hofmannsthal wrote to Strauss on July 25, 1914. A few days later, in In another letter, he insisted: “I would like to draw your full attention to the character of the Empress. She has almost no text [in the first two acts] and yet she is the main character. (…) She becomes human, this is the pivot of the play; It's her, the woman without a shadow, and not the other. (…) A spiritual light springs from her all the time (…)” .
The role of the Empress is a challenge for the sopranos. At the beginning of the first act, the Empress, not yet fully incarnated, sings a more ethereal song, with beautiful coloraturas. It is, in short, a coloratura lyric soprano song. In the third act, this song becomes more dramatic, with an expressive melodrama – when the song gives way to a spoken text. The excellent Camilla Nylund , an experienced Empress, let her voice float slightly in the first scene, producing beautiful coloraturas, especially on the 30th. It was in the third act, however, in the Empress's great act, that she showed why she is considered a of the best singers today. In addition to displaying memorable singing, especially when she said goodbye to the Mistress, Nylund was dramatically impeccable. In the melodrama, his spoken text culminated in an “ Ich will nicht!” worthy of a final milestone of all the trials and temptations she was going through. Her incarnation, her humanization, could be followed throughout the opera.
It goes without saying, but both the Choir and the Children's Choir of the Dresden opera are excellent, prepared, respectively, by André Kellinghaus and Claudia Sebastian-Bertsch .
In his last production as chief conductor of Dresden's excellent Staatskapelle , Christian Thielemann was in a state of grace. The conductor opted for a reading that valued the details and solos, which are abundant in the score. The large orchestral mass was intense, yet delicate and transparent. This is essential in an opera like Die Frau , in which part of the story is told by the orchestra, through the themes that follow one another, and one of the themes portrays, precisely, transparency. The impeccable cello solo that introduced the Emperor's scene in the second act is worth highlighting.
In a letter to Strauss, when talking about the work that was being born, Hofmannsthal described it as “the rich gift of an inspired hour” . This is what Semperoper Dresden presented, this was the gift it gave to its audience, it was in this inspired way that Thielemann said goodbye to this historical gap. It was three hours of inspired and unforgettable opera.
Now we hope this new production is released on video!