More Strauss opera: this time Die Frau Ohne Schatten: The Woman without a Shadow. The kind of score that critics call sumptuous. An absolutely baffling plot - I would say Wagnerian with its strange characters from myth/folklore and symbolism but someone would contradict me (everything Wagnerian is highly circumscribed.)
The music is mesmerizing: an amazing soprano in the DVD I watch (from the Mariinsky). The voice somehow makes it clear that the theme is apparently - quite simply - about love blessed by the birth of children and the tragedy of love lost.
So the golden falcons, souls turning to stone, Emperors in dark forests, sorcery and demon lovers are just a vehicle for something very straightforward. The end of Act 1, has a duet vocalising this - misunderstanding and longing.
Back on the beach, the sand (swept away by winter storms) has returned.
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| January 2014 |
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| March 2014 |
It's time to go back to London.
The camellias, I hope, will travel.
