Die Frau Ohne Schatten at Covent Garden

The past few weeks boys from the Vaughan have been singing in Richard Strauss's opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

The opera tells the story of an Empress who is unable to have children. It lasts more than four hours and involves the largest number of instrumentalists of any opera in the repertoire. It has some truly staggering moments, both of great beauty and also of massive volume!

The boys appear at the start of the Second Act, stealing food from a table laid for a feast, singing about what a great day it is and how Barak, the owner of the food they are stealing, is their hero.

They then sing offstage  (immediately behind the orchestra pit - a door opens to let the sound out) at the very end of Act 3: the boys sing the last notes of the evening.

The opera, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 29 March.

Here are some photos from the production showing the boys in Act 2.

Here are some videos produced by the Royal Opera House for the production.