Three sopranos discuss their roles in Strauss’s most complex opera

By MIKE SILVERMAN
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It’s part fairy tale, part psychodrama. Richard Strauss’s opera “Die Frau Ohne Schatten,” or The Woman Without a Shadow, calls for three big-voiced sopranos who can do justice to a long and difficult score. That’s one reason the opera, which premiered in 1919, is a relative rarity. Many consider it Strauss’s masterpiece, however. Now the San Francisco Opera is presenting it for the first time in 34 years. The cast includes three leading Wagner and Strauss singers: Nina Stemme, Camilla Nylund and Linda Watson. The work also is a challenge because of a libretto that mixes fantastical events with psychological insights. But with a happy ending. The production opened on June 4 and continues through June 28.