Thoughts about Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss
(The supplemented, updated version of the essay written to the 2000/2001 annals of the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona.)
After leaving Hungary I made a contract with the Oper Frankfurt in Frankfurt am Main in 1972. After my first season, in autumn the artistic director Dr. Gérard Mortier asked me to sing Die Kaiserin in Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss in the following season 1974/75. I didn’t sing any R. Strauss-role before and after the careful studying of the score, what he gave me, I gave him back to him saying “it isn’t suit for me”. But Dr. Mortier didn’t give up, he visited me many times and I cooked him numerous “really” hot Hungarian goulash. He tried to convince me, that Die Kaiserin is an ideal role for me. Number of times I listened the only recording, which was existed that time, under the baton of Karl Böhm, with Leonie Rysanek, Christel Goltz, Hans Hopf and Paul Schöffler as protagonists. At the end I became convinced by the grandiose interpretation of Karl Böhm with great artistic liberty and the singers. I read some books about Richard Strauss and Hofmannsthal and I imperceptibly dealt with the score again. Finally – Thank God – Dr. Mortier won and I undertook the role.
Eight weeks before the premiere my daughter was born with “Caeserean section”. Two weeks later I participated in a rehabilitative training led by my husband and four weeks before the premiere every day I was in rehearsals. The premiere was on 25 August 1974 under the baton of the Hungarian-born American László Halász. For the first run it wasn’t so bad. At the very beginning I felt an incredible peace. I felt this is a gigantic role, not only it demands superhuman voice capacities, but the horizon springs from the empire of ghosts to the world of rock. Although in the final scene Die Kaiserin gains her end and she gets shadow like the human beings, she doesn’t lose her divine character. Later, when I played Brünnhilde, I felt similarly.
The next performance session in Frankfurt was in May and June 1977 under the baton of the excellent Christoph von Dohnányi, who opened his directorship with this opera in October 1977 in Hamburg, too. I debuted at the Hamburgische Staatsoper in this wonderful production by Kurt Horres. I had world-famous partners: Birgit Nilsson (Die Färberin), Ruth Hesse (Die Amme), René Kollo (Der Kaiser) and Donald McIntyre (Barak). It was a great team and we had enormous success, in which I shared, too. My role has completely ripened.
The four equal protagonists of Die Frau ohne Shatten – two dramatic sopranos, a heroic tenor and a baritone – are technically exposed and extremely difficult parts. It doesn’t mean that I disesteem the roles of Die Amme and Der Falke. R. Strauss and Hofmannsthal planned this opera as a festival work, which could be performed only under ideal artistic circumstances. Although Karl Böhm formed an extra ensemble casting with James King, Leonie Rysanek, Ruth Hesse, Walter Berry, Christa Ludwig and – later – Birgit Nilsson, the work was always played with several cuts. Since the first performance the opera proved out-of-the-common. Because of the difficulties every conductor – including Herbert von Karajan – shortened it, some of them radically. At the Salzburg Festival in 1974 Karl Böhm cut about 1000 beats.
My Kaiserin brought me great success. I sang it in Genève in 1978, then – beside Elsa in Lohengrin – I debuted at the Teatro Colon in this role. I remember this production as one of my most wonderful memories beside the premier of La forza del destino at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona in 1983.
In October 1981 I played Die Kaiserin at the Metropolitan Opera in New York directed by Nathaniel Merrill. Birgit Nilsson played Die Färberin, Mignon Dunn was Die Amme, Gerd Brenneis was Der Kaiser and Barak was Franz-Ferdinand Nentwig. The conductor, Erich Leinsdorf took care of me like as her daughter. I substituted the audience favourite Leonie Rysanek, so it demanded a lot of courage and good nerves. Reputedly for request of Birgit Nilsson, over my head with the participation of my husband we replaced each other. Leonie sang Ariadne in Chicago and I was Die Kaiserin at the Met. In spite of the high expectations, the disturbed audience and the faint atmosphere caused by the Rysanek-fans Die Kaiserin on 23 October 1981 at the Met became a turning point of my life and my career. I managed to leave my cards at the Met. At the end I was standing with Birgit Nilsson in front of the curtain in front of the frenzied applause. Birgit quietly retreated behind the curtain and let me, the future alone with the audience. I will never forget her: she was an extraordinary man and extraordinary artist. A fulfilment in December the New York Times chose me as Singer of the Year. I felt myself in the seventh heaven.
The following production was in 1984 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with Marylin Zschau, Mignon Dunn, William Johns and Siegmund Nimsgern, under the baton of Marek Janowski, directed by Frank Corsaro. We played in a dark, almost empty stage and the production was like a movie by the projection machines. It wasn’t an easy task, but we had a very effective and unutterably successful result.
At La Scala in Milano I sang Die Kaiserin in 1986 in a really exciting direction of Jean-Pierre Ponelle, under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch. My partners were Brigitte Fassbender, Marilyn Zschau, Hermann Winkler and Alfred Muff. In the style of Kabuki it was a colourful, enjoyable production. It was the first time when Die Frau ohne Schatten was performed in Germen at la Scala.
I sang my favourite role last in 1988 at the Wiener Staatsoper, where I performed my first Turandot and Elektra. In the process of time these heroines with Brünnhilde of the Ring cycle put my beloved Kaiserin into the shade.
In the same year Sir Georg Solti asked me to sing Elektra in the Covent Garden-premiere in 1990. He also asked me to record the complete role of Die Färberin without any cuts in spring of 1989. I would like to do it, but I had to refuse, because I had contracts for two premieres with the Wiener Staatsoper for this period: for Leonora of La forza del destino under the baton of Claudio Abbado, in the direction of Gianfranco del Monaco and for Elektra with Claudio Abbado, directed by Hary Kupfer. A very rare thing in the Wiener Staatsoper if a leading soprano has two new production premieres in a season. I don’ know about any similar case previously. This is the reason why Wien was my next challenge.
After our Elekra in London, what The Times described as “Double Hungarian Triumphs” in a headline, Sir Georg Solti asked me for the role Die Färberin for the Easter and Summer Festivals of Salzburg. Following the trend of the revivals of original versions of well-known works Solti decided to conduct the complete version of Die Frau ohne Shatten. According to my knowledge only one artist, Lotte Lehmann, and only once, at the world premier on 10 October 1919 sang the extremely difficult part (not only in the upper register, but in the lower register, too) of Die Farberin. The first Kaiserin was Maria Jeritza.
The preparation was unusually effortful. It took two years with many breaks. Sir Georg Solti invited the singers many times to his home in London. We worked in a very familiar atmosphere – due to his nice wife, Valerie – we devoted ourselves to get the difficulties over with all our heart and soul. After Die Kaiserin it isn’t easy to join battle with its total antithesis, Die Färberin. The personality of Die Färberin is lead by such a subverter power, which could cause chaos and the loss of the moral aims (like the motherhood) and the human nature symbolized with the shadow.
Finally the first performances took place on 11 and 20 April 1992 in the marvellous Grosse Festspielhaus in the Easter Festival with the Wiener Philharmoniker. The director was Götz Friedrich and the scenery was designed by Marianne and Rolf Glittenberg. Thomas Moser and Cheryl Studer were a majestic couple. Marjana Lipovšek was Die Amme, Robert Hale was Barak, Bryn Terfel was Der Geisterbote and I was Die Färberin for the first time. Despite of my fine singing and acting, the media, mainly the German media attacked me. I don’t know its reason. I didn’t read the critiques and my husband, who always save face, didn’t show any reaction. No small surprise of my some colleagues – it seemed they didn’t calculate on me – we arrived joyfully and cheerfully to the summer rehearsals. The production brought down the house also in the Salzburg Summer Festival. The performance was broadcasted live by the Austrian television and there is an excellent video recording (DVD) for the eternity. Curiously enough the critiques had been changed. Like in the case of my first Kaiserin, the assistance of Dr. Gérard Mortier was determinative also in my first Färberin, because he became the directors of the Salzburg Festivals.
On 26 September 1998 I sang one again Die Frau ohne Schatten without any cuts at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. This was the first complete performance in the German capital under the baton of Christian Thielemann, directed by Philippe Arlaud. My partners were Thomas Moser, Deborah Voigt, Jane Henschel and Alan Titus. It was a very colourful, interesting, scenically well-done and musically extremely sensitive production.
On 30 October 2000 at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona I participated in a new production conducted by Peter Schneider, directed by Andreas Homoki, who is a Hungarian descent. It was a very special pleasure to work with him, whose productions with complex symbolic systems evoked fervent discussions like in Genève and in Paris. I wasn’t disappointed: his stage direction was excellent. My partners were Thomas Moser, Susan Anthony, Wolfgang Schöne and Hanna Schwarz.
On 11 September 2002 Die Frau ohne Schatten was performed at Athen Festival on the stage of the Megaron Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 1991. The directorial team, Michael Hampe stage director, Hans Schavernoch set designer and Carlo Tommasi costume designer – both of them are well-known excellent artists – created a very spectacular, high-level production. The conductor was Michael Schønwandt and my partners were Ronald Hamilton, Inge Nielsen, Franz Grundheber, Marylin Zschau and Siegfried Lorenz. The splendid production was filmed, but I have never seen and I have never heard any mention about it. It’s a pity.
On 23 February 2003 after nearly 30 years I took leave of Die Färberin in a gala performance in the Frankfurt Opera, where I started with Die Kaiserin. I sang with Stephen O’Mara, Silvana Dussmann and Wolfgang Schöne, the conductor was Sebastian Weigle.
After Die Kaiserin, Die Färberin, Ariadne, Helena, Salome, Chrysothemis and Elektra I added Klytamnestra to my Richard Strauss-repertory. 36 years in the wonderful, fascinating world of Richard Strauss…
The apropos of my recall is the Hungarian premiere of Die Frau ohne Schatten in the Hungarian State Opera on 25 May 2014, after nearly 40 years after my first Kaiserin. I saw and listened it with nostalgia in my usual seat, in the 11th box of the first floor on the left side. For the 150th anniversary of the Richard Strauss’s birth, – beside his other operas – the directorship dared to perform this extraordinarily demanding and difficult work at first! They managed to do it! The orchestra – conducted by Péter Halász – was much better than expected. Especially the three female protagonists (Eszter Sümegi, Szilvia Rálik, Ildikó Komlósi) were excellent, but the other singers – except some of them – gave their best. The stage direction of János Szikora, especially the use of covered space helped the production’s success in a great extent. It wasn’t clear for me what his message is with the extremely great tyre, which rolled along backwards and forwards. I know that Hungary will be a world-power in tyre manufacture, but I don’t know the reason of the lack of dying, but I don’t have to understand everything. In any case it seems that the directorship of the Hungarian State Opera is on the right track. But they need for the realization of their conceptions.
Budapest, 26 May 2014 Prof. Emerita KS. Éva Marton