Serenity in Chaos

There are few living conductors who can equal Christian Thielemann when it comes to the music of Richard Strauss, and even fewer who can venture with such assurance beyond the canonical masterpieces; his participation in the new production of Die schweigsame Frau at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden – which had only a handful of performances at the tail end of last season, but returned this month for a longer run – was already enough to make it a noteworthy event. The fact that it could also boast a tremendous central performance from Peter Rose (for whom the role of Morosus seemed tailor-made), a strong supporting cast, and a lively, modernised staging resulted in an evening to delight both casual opera-goers and dedicated fans of late-period Strauss in equal measure.

If lofty mythological themes inspired Strauss to create his most sublime…