Intermezzo

Free Frau ticket

Want to see the dress rehearsal of Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Royal Opera House tomorrow?

Reader Duncan has a spare (very good) ticket to give away. 

To apply, just answer the following question: 

Frau ohne 50%

Stalls and stalls circle seats for the ROH's Die Frau ohne Schatten are down to £85 (roughly half price) using the code fraumarch.

The offer is valid for the 17, 20 and 29 March shows only.

If you would like to book by telephone, call the Box Office on +44 (0)20 7304 4000, quoting 'Frau March Offer'.

Royal Opera House spring season 2014

The Royal Opera House's spring season opens for Friends booking tomorrow (11 December), with public booking starting on 14 January 2014.

First stop for many ticket buyers will be Jonas Kaufmann's Winterreise on 6 April.  Not the most obvious choice of repertoire, either for Kaufmann or for the venue, but any Jonas is better than none. Tickets are likely to go quickly.

Munich Haus Frau

Beaming down from the Bavarian State Opera on Sunday night (1Dec) is Die Frau ohne Schatten. Krzysztof Warlikowski's new production (less racy than the still above might hint) features Johan Botha, Adrianne Pieczonka, Deborah Polaski, Wolfgang Koch and Elena Pankratova, with Kirill Petrenko conducting.

The live stream begins at 18:00 CET (5pm UK).

Royal Opera House's new Die Frau ohne Schatten - a first peek

Claus Guth's new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten comes to Covent Garden next year, but first it premieres at La Scala - on 11 March.

More pictures here.

Die Frau ohne Schatten opens in Salzburg

Die Frau ohne Schatten - Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, 29 July 2011 (first night)

It now seems incredible that Strauss's musically richest and most colourful opera was dismissed as 'boring' by its first critics. Christian Thielemann coaxed the Vienna Philharmonic into a display of such aural opulence on its Friday premiere that it was easy to overlook the deficiencies of Christof Loy's meagre production.