The Secret Shame

Franz Schreker spent the early decades of the twentieth century as one of the most performed opera composers in the German speaking world; in the early decades of the twenty-first century, nearly all his major works have become relative rarities both on stage and on record. Die Gezeichneten, however, appears to be having its moment of resurgence, with a recent production in Munich and now a new staging at Berlin’s Komische Oper directed by Calixto Bieito. Although Mr Bieito’s highly sexualised, mildly controversial production often seemed at odds with Schreker’s dramatic design, its willingness to introduce extra layers of moral ambiguity into the story made for an evening that was frequently intriguing and never less than provocative.

The opera, in its original form, is governed by a simple, high-contrast morality. Alviano Salvago, a…