Die tote Stadt

With Die tote Stadt, The Royal Opera presents a rediscovered masterpiece in its Royal Opera House and UK premiere. Although Erich Korngold became famous through the rich symphonic sounds of his great Hollywood film scores, his early gem of an opera from 1920 was a huge success before he went to America, yet until recently has been mostly neglected.

With a style reminiscent of Richard Strauss and a nickname of the ‘Viennese Puccini’, it is no surprise that Korngold reveals in his opera the melody and drama, the atmosphere and emotion for which he later won his Oscars.

The story follows the sometimes-real and sometimes-imagined world of Paul, locked in the grip of memories of his dead wife Marie. Marietta, a young woman who resembles Marie in looks but certainly not character, offers the chance for Paul to break free from his obsession with the past and return to his own life and a future. Willy Decker’s production has already been hugely praised for its visual and dramatic creation of a world on the edge of reality, its striking design of impressionistic and fragmented imagery conjuring up the dreamlike world of Bruges – the dead city of the title – as the obsessive Paul experiences it.

Making this even more of a special occasion, Ingo Metzmacher, a leading interpreter of 20th-century opera, conducts a score that is as ravishing as it is engrossing.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes | 1 Interval
Performed in German with English surtitles

CREDITS
Composer:
Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Director:
Willy Decker

Designs:
Wolfgang Gussman

Lighting:
Wolfgang Göbbel

PERFORMERS
Conductor:
Ingo Metzmacher

Paul:
Torsten Kerl
Stephen Gould

Marie/Marietta:
Nadja Michael

Frank/Fritz:
Gerald Finley

Brigitta:
Kathleen Wilkinson

Gastone/Victorin:
Bernard Richter

Kleine Graf:
Ji-Min Park§

Juliette:
Simona Mihai§

Lucienne:
Jurgita Adamonyte

§ Jette Parker Young Artist