Günter Papendell

Strauss’ rarely performed bitter-sweet opera of an unhappy marriage fueled with jealousy.

Live performance from the Komische Oper Berlin, February 15 2016.

Die tote Stadt (German for The Dead City) is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold to a libretto by Paul Schott, a collective pseudonym for the composer and his father, Julius Korngold; it is based on the 1892 novel Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach.

In the cold of winter, an exuberant poet lives in poverty with his three bohemian flatmates. His heart is warmed when he falls in love with his fragile neighbour, but then her illness takes a turn for the worse. In this new production, Barrie Kosky stages a portrait of life caught between art, unrequited love and modern isolation in the face of death. German soprano and Komische Oper Berlin Ensemble member Nadja Mchantaf plays Mimì alongside the young Austrian-Australian tenor Gerard Schneider as Rodolfo.

Barrie Kosky peers into the abyss of the human soul and tackles one of the most important Symbolist masterpieces in the operatic repertoire.