Performance History
The opera was first performed on 18 August 1912 at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt conducted by Ludwig Rottenberg and continued to be performed regularly over the next two decades when it held a special place in the German-speaking world as one of the pioneering works of modern opera. Important productions included the Czech premiere in May 1920 at the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague under Alexander Zemlinsky and the highly successful Berlin State Opera production of May 1925 under Erich Kleiber with the composers wife Maria Schreker and Richard Tauber in the leading roles. The opera was also staged in Leningrad (1925) and Stockholm (1927). The last productions during Schreker's lifetime were at the Stadttheater Aachen and in Teplitz-Schönau during the 1930-31 season, whereafter the Nazi ban on Entartete Musik caused it to disappear from the repertory.
The opera has been rediscovered in recent years and its continuing popularity is illustrated by the number of performances it received in 2010. These included three at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and another production at the Zurich Opera House under conductor Ingo Metzmacher with Juliane Banse as Grete and Roberto Sacca as Fritz. The opera was also given as part of Bard SummerScape, Bard College's summer festival in July and August in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York under music director Leon Botstein and staged by "visionary director" Thaddeus Strassberger.
A new production at Bonn Opera opened in December 2011 and another staging took place at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg in October 2012.
Read more about this topic: Der Ferne Klang
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