Richard Bratby

The opera that wouldn’t die

After a century of political suppression and critical sniffiness, Erich Korngold’s one-time smash hit Die tote Stadt is back

Stephen Gould as Paul and Nadja Michael as Marie/Marietta in the Royal Opera’s 2009 production of Erich Korngold’s Die tote Stadt. Credit: robbie jack/Corbis via Getty Images
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When Erich Wolfgang Korngold completed his third opera, Die tote Stadt, in August 1920, he’d barely turned 23. Yet such was his reputation that what followed was practically a Europe-wide bidding war for rights to the première. The young composer had his pick of companies and conductors (the Vienna State Opera tried and failed).

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