Opera on 3 29.03.14 - Die Frau Ohne Schatten (ROH)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I did think that at that price it would be worth it, but it would be my first recording & I wouldn't, I think, want it to be my only one.

I agree - you'd need a recording with better sound quality, and the "original" second act*. But the Karajan is superb: an extract on youTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0wBzbkKA9w

(* = Solti's, perhaps? He could be (?uncharacteristicly?) warm in Strauss opera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEJ1xy-5icY

[underthecountertenor]

I was at the last night of "Die Frau" last Wednesday. Act 3 builds to a great climax; the Empress is faced with the decision of whether to accept the shadow, thereby destroying the human couple but saving her husband the Emperor, or rejecting it, saving the human couple but at the cost of the Emperor being petrified. The Empress is torn between these irreconcilables, and finally these words are wrung out of her: "ICH WILL NICHT!" (I will not accept the shadow). This is the catharsis of the drama, and it is followed by a long and tense silence. And during this silence, from about ten seats away, somewhere in the front row of the Balcony, I clearly heard the words: "What language is that?"

On the day I went (earlier in the run) I was next to an elderly couple in the front row of the balcony. There had been some exchanges between them during the performance which I had managed to overlook. But, during the magical last few bars, one of them half-whispered to the other 'it's rather like Rosenkavalier,' to which the other responded 'pardon?', leading to a full voice 'IT'S RATHER LIKE ROSENKAVALIER' during the very last couple of bars. I seethed.