WEBVTT

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My name is Camilla Nylund and I am singing the role of »Kaiserin« in our new staging of »The Woman without a Shadow«. I am delighted to be back at the Dresden Semperoper.

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I am Evelyn Herlitzius. I am singing the Nurse in the production »The Woman without a Shadow« by Richard Strauss.

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Singing the Kaiserin is a great challenge, because at first you really have to start almost like a light lyric coloratura soprano.

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You have to speak this huge melodrama, and not everyone can do that.

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Yes, it's a long piece. I mean, Evelyn knows that too. There are many, many, many hours.

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Of course you have a lot more to sing that evening. I don't even know how many notes you have and how many notes I have?

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I'm not counting them as a precaution.

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We are on stage together a lot. We always come as a couple.

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The singing is very challenging because you have to keep the voice lyrical.

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The singing is very challenging because you have to keep the voice lyrical. You have to have a very good high range, you have to sing a good high C, even a high D or D flat.

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The nurse is lower. This creates other difficulties because the range of notes extends from high Bb to low E.

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This is one of the largest tone intervals in the repertoire.

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In addition, the role is also extremely challenging musically and harmonically.

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It is always on the edge of atonality.

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You can never really be sure how to go into the next modulation, because it's one of those Strauss parts where the singer has to foresee the modulation.

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And the musical side, because we have a huge orchestra. So the orchestra pit has to be really big.

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There are also some instruments that you can't usually experience in this way. For example, the glass harmonica.

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There are only a few people who can play this instrument in the world.

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For example, I had the same glass harmonica player in Berlin, in Vienna and also in San Francisco. I can't wait to see if he will be part of this production.