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Schedule - Deutsche Oper Berlin

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Die Frau ohne Schatten

Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949)

05
Wednesday
February
18:00 - 22:00
C prices: € 108.00 / 90.00 / 64.00 / 40.00 / 26.00
Buy tickets
Information about the work

The Woman without a Shadow

Opera in three acts
Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
First performed on 10th October 1919 in Vienna
Premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 26 January 2025

4 hrs 15 mins / Two intervals

In German language with German and English surtitles

Introduction in German language - 45 mins before beginning

recommended from 16 years
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Cast
Our thanks to our partners

The performances on 26 and 30 January will be recorded by rbb. The premiere on 26 January will be broadcast live on radio3 by rbb. Further broadcasts on the radio are planned. The premiere is presented by Siegessäule and taz.

05
Wednesday
February
18:00 - 22:00
C prices: € 108.00 / 90.00 / 64.00 / 40.00 / 26.00
Buy tickets
Cast
the content

About the work
According to Hugo von Hofmannsthal in a 1911 letter to Richard Strauss, in which he set out his idea for another collaboration between the two men, their next opera would be to THE MAGIC FLUTE what THE KNIGHT OF THE ROSE had been to FIGARO. And the work that premiered a full eight years later did indeed have strong echoes of Mozart’s »grand opéra«: there is the clash of different social classes, the fairytale-like, highly symbolic storyline and above all the strong feeling that ground-breaking change is underway which is challenging accepted orthodoxy and forcing issues of human interaction and values to the top of the political agenda. And in both cases enlightenment is gained only through ordeal and adversity. Here the shadow has a pivotal function as a metaphor for female fertility: the barren Empress and her nurse bargain with the dyer’s wife for her shadow. Only when the Empress rebels against achieving marital happiness and maternal contentment at someone else’s expense does a path to social harmony open up.

About the production
Tobias Kratzer has chosen this monumental fantasy opera to close his cycle of Strauss works at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Where ARABELLA explores how hard it can be to even start a relationship based on equal rights and INTERMEZZO depicts what can happen in a marriage that has gone stale, in THE WOMAN WITHOUT A SHADOW Kratzer focuses on the challenge of rekindling a bond that has weakened through years of poor nurturing – an approach that extends far beyond the domestic sphere due to the ethical issues surrounding surrogate motherhood.

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09
DEC

Adventskalender in der Tischlerei: Das 9. Fensterchen

Today in the Tischlerei: ‘Ding Dong! Merrily on High’
with the VoiceChangers under the baton of Rosemarie Arzt
5 p.m. / Tischlerei
Duration: approx. 25 minutes / Free admission


This evening, as part of the Advent calendar, you can experience the VoiceChangers. These young singers have often been members of the Deutsche Oper Berlin children's chorus since primary school and have appeared on the main stage in productions such as TOSCA, CARMEN, PARSIFAL, LA BOHÈME, WOZZECK and TURANDOT. The group for those with changing voices was founded by Rosemarie Arzt 12 years ago and since then has offered young singers the opportunity to make their voices heard together, even during the complicated phase of voice breaking, when the larynx and vocal folds grow and access to the familiar range of tones changes considerably at times.

Today, they are singing Christmas carols from different countries in the Tischlerei as part of the advent calendar. They will be carrying us off to a festive Christmas world with classics such as ‘Maria durch ein Dornwald ging’ and ‘O du fröhliche’, Spanish Christmas songs, English and American pop hits such as ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘The Christmas Song’.