The Distant Sound in the Swedish Royal Opera in Stockholm, the 26th of October, 2019

I hadn’t earlier heard any operas by composer Franz Schreker, so when the Swedish Royal Opera took to their programme his opera “The Distant Sound” (Der ferne Klang), I decided that I have to see it. Schreker was a very popular composer at his time, but his operas soon fell into oblivion for decades. Now they have experienced a smallish revival and for good reason.

Schreker wrote himself also the libretto for almost all his operas. “The Distant Sound” is a story of love, ambition and betrayal. Grete and Fritz are young lovers. However, Fritz is an ambitious composer and leaves Grete to seek for the distant sound that would make him famous. Grete’s father tries to marry her off to pay his drinking debts. Grete runs away to a compassionate older woman, who, however, turns out just to search girls to a brothel. Ten years later, when Grete is a celebrated courtesan, Fritz meets her again and wants to marry her until he finds out about her occupation and then he leaves her again. A few years later, Grete, now a simple street prostitute, goes to hear Fritz’s latest concert. The beginning of the concert is a success, the end a disappointment to the audience. Fritz is dying, but at the last moment he is united with Grete. They still love each other, all is forgiven and Fritz dies on Grete’s arms.

I really liked the whole package of this opera, that is Christof Loy’s direction, Raimund Orfeo Voigt’s set design and Barbara Drosihn’s costume design. The set was simple and at times on the background they even used old-fashioned cardboard curtain that represented forest (behind which an actual forest with trees was revealed!). The costumes were super suitable for the opera. I especially admired the symbolism of Grete’s costumes. Red in the beginning and glittering red in the middle, grey and black in the bleak end.

I cannot but praise the excellent German pronunciation of all the singers, which would have allowed following the opera even without texting. I actually realized only mid opera that the texting was only in Swedish, which was a bit surprising, since nowadays most opera houses have the texting both in the local language and in English.

But – once again – the music crowned the evening. I didn’t know that to expect, since – as I said – Schreker was an unknown composer to me, but the music was fascinating. At times it sounded very modern, at times glittering like the old masters’ masterpieces. The conductor Stefan Blunier created beautiful music with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

However, this is an opera, where the leading pair (and especially Grete) play such an important role that the choice of singers is vital. Agneta Eichenholz was magnificent in the role of Grete. The further the opera got, the more facets Grete got and the more spellbound the audience became. The obsessive Fritz was a bit more straightforward a character. Daniel Johansson had some problems with the highest notes in the first act, but he got his voice running in the next acts. The end scene was so intense and emotional that I was close to tears. What an end to a beautiful opera! There are still a few performances left and tickets are available at https://www.operan.se/.