Erich Korngold’s Dead City deals with an emotional conflict most of us can empathise with: a man, Paul, grieving for his dead wife, Marie, is racked with guilt about his infatuation with a dancer, Marietta, who uncannily resembles her. It also has one of the most hummable melodies in the entire operatic repertory, Marietta’s Song, which conveys the pain of love and loss with almost unbearable poignancy.
Why, then, has Die tote Stadt, as it’s usually known, never been done before at ENO? There are historical reasons to account for the work’s disappearance after its initial popularity following World War in the 1920s. But Paul’s over-extended hallucinatory dreams are problematic to stage. And the lead tenor role is an extremely taxing one.
