"The Silent Woman" by Richard Strauss

“The opera is a hit,” said Strauss of his work, presciently adding, “if only in the twenty-first century.” The libretto was the chance of a lifetime, as Jewish author Stefan Zweig was then at the height of his powers. Adapting Ben Jonson’s comedy, Zweig penned a witty libretto that demonstrates his profound grasp of stagecraft and how to make drama entertaining.

The opera is also a favourite of Christian Thielemann. Thrilled by the colour and variety of the scoring, he chose Die schweigsame Frau for his premiere performance as General Music Director of the Staatsoper Berlin. His predecessors at the rostrum include not just the great Daniel Barenboim but also Richard Strauss himself, who in 1908 was appointed General Music Director of the Königlicher Hofoper Unter den Linden, now the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

So what is the answer to social isolation and the housing shortage? That is the question that Jan Philipp Gloger, Artistic Director of the Wiener Volkstheater, set out to answer in his new staging of Strauss’s work. His production of Die schweigsame Frau marks his debut as a director at the Berlin Staatsoper.

Sir Morosus lives in an old-style apartment in Charlottenburg in Berlin. He rarely socializes and all he wants is peace and quiet. But then his nephew Henry moves in with him, and to his surprise, brings along a whole theatre troupe with him, as well as his taciturn wife Aminta. In the course of the three acts, each of them musically very different, Sir Morosus’s sad life takes a turn for the better. The company of actors enables him to reconnect with people and brings him peace and contentment.