A year has passed since the young Emperor went hunting with his falcon and captured the Peri, who was in the form of a gazelle, and married her. She is still all light, neither human nor a spirit, and if after three more days she casts no shadow, she must return to Keikobad and the Emperor will turn to stone. Since she cannot bear children unless she can find a human shadow, she asks the strange Nurse for help. The Nurse, who controls weird magics, brings her to the discontented household of Barak, a dyer, and his Wife. The Nurse attempts to purchase the Wife's shadow by promising her riches, an idyllic life, and a young lover. The Wife resists three times, and the Baraks are cast into an underground vault. The characters wander through eerily exotic settings while they recover their consciences, and all ends happily.

Die Frau ohne Schatten

David McVicar’s powerful Royal Opera House 2008 production of Strauss's opera – based on a play by Oscar Wilde – takes the controversial and disturbing film 120 Days of Sodom as its visual reference. The action is set in a debauched palace, which has suggestions of Nazi Germany. Strauss’s ravishing and voluptuous score adds to the sexual alchemy that is conjured by an international cast led by Nadja Michael in the title role.

Salomé

Conductor: Claudio Abbado. Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.  1.Symphony no 1 in C major, Op. 21  2. Symphony no 2 in D major, Op. 36  3. Symphony no 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 "Eroica"  4. Symphony no 4 in B flat major, Op. 60  5. Symphony no 5 in C minor, Op. 67  6. Symphony no 6 in F major, Op. 68 "Pastoral"  7. Symphony no 7 in A major, Op. 92  8. Symphony no 8 in F major, Op. 93  9. Symphony no 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral"