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

Franz Lehár’s “Die Lustige Witwe” is reputed to be one of the most famous operettas in the world. Under the direction of the French Jerome Savary's the “Merry Widow” sparkles. At the first staging of this production at the Opera-Comique in Paris (Octobre, 2005) the singers appeared to be having as much fun as the audience. The Austrian Maestro Manfred Honeck presents his musical view on this operetta.

The Merry Widow

It has been a long time since the events of Das Rheingold. Wotan has fathered nine Valkyries, warrior women who bring dead heroes to Valhalla (the castle of the Gods).  Richard Wagner's dream of a Gesamkuntswerk becomes reality through La Fura dels Baus' visual fantasy and blending of video technology, lighting and props (often formed of human beings): Their 30 computer projections and organic structures built of athletic performers that recall Cirque du Soleil are predestined for Wagner's visionary expressive world.