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.
I am Evelyn Herlitzius. I am singing the Nurse in the production »The Woman without a Shadow« by Richard Strauss.
Singing the Kaiserin is a great challenge, because at first you really have to start almost like a light lyric coloratura soprano.
You have to speak this huge melodrama, and not everyone can do that.
Yes, it's a long piece. I mean, Evelyn knows that too. There are many, many, many hours.
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?
I'm not counting them as a precaution.
We are on stage together a lot. We always come as a couple.
The singing is very challenging because you have to keep the voice lyrical.
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.
The nurse is lower. This creates other difficulties because the range of notes extends from high Bb to low E.
This is one of the largest tone intervals in the repertoire.
In addition, the role is also extremely challenging musically and harmonically.
It is always on the edge of atonality.
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.
And the musical side, because we have a huge orchestra. So the orchestra pit has to be really big.
There are also some instruments that you can't usually experience in this way. For example, the glass harmonica.
There are only a few people who can play this instrument in the world.
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.