The Afterlives of Empresses: Fairy-Tale Opera and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy

Larry Wolff, Professor at New York University

Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal premiered at the Vienna State Opera in October 1919. This lecture considers the fairy-tale emperor and empress in the three-act opera in relation to the last Habsburg emperor and empress, Karl and Zita. Strauss and Hofmannsthal conceived of the opera before World War I, in the age of emperors, but by the time the opera premiered in Vienna, the ruling class of Europe had been removed from their thrones and were on their way to becoming fairy-tale figures themselves in nostalgic retrospect. This lecture addresses the operatic staging of empire in Die Frau ohne Schatten, and follows the history of Karl and Zita during their reign, their afterlives in exile, and their legacy.

This talk is presented as part of the Summer 2025 Lecture Series, “Focus Vienna,” which explores themes related to the exhibition “Austrian Masterworks from the Neue Galerie.”