Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. When the work premiered in Vienna in 1919, critics and audiences were unenthusiastic (many cited problems with Hofmannsthal's complicated and heavily symbolic libretto). Today, the opera is considered by many to be Strauss's finest work in the genre, although it remains rarely produced. The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... This article is about the German composer of tone-poems and operas. ... A libretto is the complete body of words used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. ... Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo von Hofmannsthal (February 1, 1874 – July 15, 1929), was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. ...

Plot

The opera's story is set in the mythical empire of the Southeastern Islands and involves five principal characters: the Emperor (tenor), the Empress (soprano), her Nurse (contralto), a lowly dyer named Barak (baritone), and his wife (soprano). A sixth character, Keikobad, King of the Spirit Realm and father to the Empress, sets the plot in motion, but never appears on stage.

Act I, Scene 1 begins at dawn, just outside the bedchamber of the Empress. The Nurse is keeping watch over the imperial couple as they sleep when a Messenger arrives from Keikobad. The Messenger tells the Nurse that unless the Empress procures a shadow in three days (the libretto's poetic euphemism for conceiving a child), the Emperor will be turned to stone. The Messenger leaves just as the Emperor emerges from the bed chamber and starts off on a three-day hunting trip, leaving his wife to the Nurse's care. The Empress awakes and is subsequently given Keikobad's message. The Nurse, who as it turns out is steeped in magic, suggests descending to the mortal world and finding a woman who will sell her shadow to the Empress.

Scene 2 takes place in the hut of Barak the dyer. He shares this home with his Wife and his three brothers: the One-Eyed, the One-Armed, and the Hunchback. An argument between the Wife and her brothers-in-law turns into a confrontation during which we learn that Barak desires children, but his Wife fears the responsibility. Barak and his brothers leave when the Empress and the Nurse arrive on the scene in disguise. The Nurse conjures up visions of luxury and promises them to the Wife in return for her shadow. The Wife agrees to deny her husband for three days during which the Nurse and the Empress will live at the Dyer's hut as servants. The Wife hears the voices of unborn children offstage when Barak returns. The curtain descends as Barak, exiled from his marital bed, overhears the voices of the village watchmen sing of conjugal love.

The Empress at first attempts to gain a shadow from Barak's wife, but in the end refuses to do so, as the human cost is too high. Because of her fidelity to goodness, something only Barak in this opera fully shares, in the end she wins her own shadow after all.

The opera is a paean to child-bearing and the shadow signifies fertility and what the composer and librettist consider the true virtue of marriage: giving birth. The opera ends with both couples happily professing to their ability to bear children and propagate humanity.

Roles

The role of the Empress calls for a dramatic soprano who is also capable of extended coloratura passages containing trills, runs, and a high E-flat (and that's just her first solo in Act One). Similarly, any tenor attempting the Emperor must be able to handle numerous passages in his uppermost range, particularly his extended solo scena in Act Two. The Nurse role sits mostly in the contralto range, but makes frequent leaps above the staff. The Dyer's Wife also calls for a soprano with immense sound to be heard over heavily orchestrated passages. Barak is the most approachable of the leading vocal parts, but again the orchestration is very heavy and requires a baritone with sufficient stamina to last the opera's three hours and fifteen minutes.