The Beggar's Opera

Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City)

There is great interest currently in the 1920s music of Erich Korngold and this opera which he wrote in Vienna before moving to Hollywood, is currentlhy being staged at The Royal Opera House. The dead city is Bruges, which had lost its role as a port. The conflict for the hero is the purity of his dead lover, Marie, and his wish to be faithful to her memory pitted against the physicality of a new promiscuous woman who looks like Marie, is called Mariett - , the part of the both women is sung by the same singer. The DVD performance is dark an powerful, ending tragically. The music is lush and emotional. On a practical note I found it quite difficult to get the English subtitles for the opera sung in German - though they were there.