Die Frau ohne Schatten - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2026 - Die Frau ohne Schatten - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2026, Barrie Kosky

Description

A new production for the 2026 Aix-en-Provence Festival at the Grand Théâtre de Provence
Co-produced with La Monnaie / De Munt and the Greek National Opera

In Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow), the Emperor’s wife is a "fairy daughter." Upon marrying, she lost most of her powers yet remains immortal; as such, she casts no shadow—an absence that also signifies her inability to bear children. She must, however, obtain a shadow within three days, or else the Emperor will turn to stone and she will be condemned to join the spirit realm... Longing to leave behind a hollow immortality and find embodiment through the act of giving life, she ventures into the mortal world to claim the shadow of a dyer’s wife.

In this new production for the 2026 Aix-en-Provence Festival, director Barrie Kosky explores the full ambiguity of Strauss’s opera, which sits somewhere between a fairy tale and a journey of initiation marked by trials. He structures the staging around two worlds: on one hand, the realm of the Emperor and Empress (Michael Spyres and Vida Miknevičiūtė), likened here to the world of the dead, abstract and unconscious; and on the other, the real world of the dyer and his wife (Brian Mulligan and Ambur Braid), which mirrors our own daily reality.

Die Frau ohne Schatten thus traces the paths of these two couples (one despairing over its childlessness, the other more ambivalent about the prospect) unfolding as a journey of initiation centered on love, forgiveness, the quest for the soul, and the passing of wisdom between generations. To bring this interpretation to life, Barrie Kosky’s staging promises to sustain the work’s theatrical ambiguity: the two worlds collide (shifting between domestic realism and waking nightmare) leaving the audience unable to distinguish between dream and reality, while deepening the emotional bond with the four main protagonists.

The production is further enhanced by the musical direction of the young conductor Klaus Mäkelä; while frequently acclaimed in the concert, he here makes his true operatic conducting debut in the pit, leading the Orchestre de Paris.

Further information is available on the Festival’s official website.

Broadcasts: the production is being filmed for broadcast on July 9, 2026, at 7:00 PM live on arte.tv, followed by a radio broadcast on July 13 at 8:00 PM on France Musique, EBU member stations, Francemusique.fr, and the Radio France app.