An Adult Fairy Tale

Last night I attended the Lyric Opera production of Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten. The production was astonishing in the use of light and movement while the singing was excellent. The center of the opera for me is Strauss's music, as it is with all his many works. His use of motifs move the drama along ever onward and, at times, were almost magical in evoking the mysterious moods of the opera. Rather than summarize the whole story, let me just say that it is one that juxtaposes this world (the Dyer's wife and her husband Barak) with the supernatural (the Empress and her Nurse) and leads to an ultimate decision for the Empress. The journey to that decision takes the singers and music into ethereal realms and charmed this opera lover.