Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

A live recording of conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch’s final production for the Bavarian State Opera. Recorded in 1992, Sawallisch chose to stage Strauss’s opera in Japan, a country where he had worked for many years, and employed a Japanese production team to create a sumptuous set design.

TDK presents a rare document of an operatic highlight from 1992: the Japanese première of Wolfgang Sawallisch’s last production at the Bavarian State Opera, filmed during the Company’s tour of Nagoya and Tokyo in autumn 1992.

Sawallisch – an acclaimed interpreter of the music of Richard Strauss – chose Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow) to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his debut as visiting guest conductor of Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. It was also the occasion of the work’s first performance in Japan.

Sawallisch selected a Japanese production team headed by director and kabuki actor Ennosuke Ichikawa for this new production. The highly artificial movements adopted by the Emperor, Empress and Nurse in particular were all influenced by the kabuki style of acting. Ennosuke Ichikawa also directed TDK’s release of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or (DV-OPLCO), which won wide acclaim for its staging and was described by Opera Now thus: “it looks stunning, is beautifully lit, and never less than interesting.”

This masterfully recorded DVD now finally offers opera fans the opportunity to see an exceptional opera, revealing potent, unsettling music set by Strauss to a magical, fairy-tale plot, which, has until now, been unavailable for home viewing.