Die Tote Stadt

A man’s obsession with his dead wife threatens his sanity in Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s intense psychological study—a harrowing mix of hallucinatory fantasy and painful reality that has been compared to Hitchcock’s Vertigo . This emotionally gripping, visually arresting trip into the dark side of a troubled psyche features a voluptuous, colorful score reminiscent of both Puccini and Richard Strauss. Critics called director Willy Decker’s production “magical and intriguing...Decker brilliantly succeeds in blending reality and the dream world.” Donald Runnicles conducts the San Francisco Opera premiere of the renowned film composer and two-time Academy Award winner’s greatest work for the stage.