Die Liebe der Danae, Deutsche Oper, Berlin

Safely stylish: Kirsten Harms’ production, starring Mark Delavan

Like the city of Berlin, Pollux’s kingdom is bankrupt. His creditors are in the house, carting off his possessions, and he has no solution except to find a rich husband for his daughter, Danae.

For her last production as Intendantin of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, Kirsten Harms has chosen Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae, an elegant metaphor for the city that has offered her an uneasy home for the past seven years.

A private performance of Strauss’s autumnal work was given by special permission of the Nazis in Salzburg in 1942, but the first full production was not until a decade later, three years after the composer’s death. Since then, Die Liebe der Danae has enjoyed only sporadic outings, not least because of the murderous demands it makes on its singers.

It was Harms who dusted the opera off for a much-acclaimed production in Kiel, her previous house, 10 years ago. Now she brings it to the German capital – in much the same guise, but with new sets and lower impact.

Harms and her designers Bernd Damovsky and Dorothea Katzer set the work in what could be seen as elite 1940s Third Reich circles, but the references are far too vague to be sure. The gold of suitor Midas and imposter Jupiter looks like cheap plastic; the special effects recall Ed Wood on a bad day; the jokes fall flat; and the love scenes bore more than they thrill. Harms tells the story in a slavishly literal manner.

The whole is stylish enough, in a humdrum way, but she fails to make us care about any of her characters. Part of the blame must go to Andrew Litton, who takes a pragmatic approach to the score. He gets his protagonists through the evening, which is no mean feat, but the sum effect is leaden and devoid of magic. This is a score that ought to intoxicate.

The singers do their best. Matthias Klink is intelligent but undercast as Midas. As Jupiter, Mark Delavan struggles audibly with his role’s upper registers, often losing the battle for accuracy. The smaller roles fare better. Manuela Uhl takes the honours in the title role with a performance that has stature, detail and clout.

The opening-night audience was politely enthusiastic. Harms’ troubled reign ends without flair, without political or emotional impact, without scandal. Die Liebe der Danae is safe and unspectacular. May the future hold more excitement.

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