‘It was a very significant accident.’ David Butt Philip’s introduction to Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) came out of the blue. The British tenor was in his second year as a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House in 2014 when he was called in to cover the Apparition of a Youth at short notice.

‘If you ask me to list the turning points of my career,’ he says, ‘this one would be high up. I had never heard a note of the opera, but I saw it was only about three minutes of music, albeit quite high-lying and exposed, a classic Strauss tenor role. Peter Katona (director of casting) and conductor Semyon Bychkov asked if I could sing the first stage rehearsal the next morning! I was allowed to use the score, but by the following day they wanted me to be off copy.

‘I remember the premiere. In Claus Guth’s production the small roles come back on stage for the finale, which I had never heard before and I was suddenly on this rotating truck that swung round to the front of the stage whilst Johan Botha, Johan Reuter, Emily Magee and Elena Pankratova were singing the final ensemble. I was completely overwhelmed and thought, “My God, what is this music?”

‘Semyon came up to me after the premiere and said, “This is really your repertoire and you should look at other Strauss roles.” I really didn’t know that hoch-dramatic rep, having mostly been singing Italian stuff. I remember Katona saying to me “I think you’ve found your Fach,” and so it proved. It was my first Strauss role, my first role from that late Romantic period… and now, 10 years later, basically 90 per cent of my work is in that repertoire!’

Butt Philip reminisces about South African tenor Johan Botha, who sang the role of the Kaiser (the Emperor). ‘I’ve never in my whole life heard such a big voice that was so beautiful. It was the most extraordinary combination of the power of a true Heldentenor and the beauty and elegance of a lyric tenor. It was breathtaking. I used to stand in the wings and watch him sing the Kaiser’s Act 2 scene with my jaw on the floor!’

Butt Philip has now stepped into Botha’s shoes, making his role debut as the Kaiser in David Hockney’s (ex-Royal Opera) production in San Francisco in 2023 and is about to appear in Tobias Kratzer’s new staging at Deutsche Oper Berlin.

It’s a curious role in a curious opera, an Arabian Nights styled fable. The Empress, half-human, has been captured, in the form of a gazelle, by the Emperor. When she assumed human form, he married her but she has no shadow – symbolising her inability to bear children – and, at the start of the opera, it is decreed that unless she can acquire a shadow within three days, the Empress will be forcibly sent back to her realm and the Emperor will be turned to stone.

‘People are obsessed with this piece. Obviously, part of the problem with staging it is that the characters and the plot are so elusive and esoteric. I guess one of the reasons why directors like it is because it’s so abstract and metaphysical that you can do anything you want with it. To modern eyes there are problems to work around,’ he admits. ‘None of the characters is inherently misogynistic although the subject matter itself could be read as misogynistic, but it doesn’t have to be, which is crucial.’

Although the role of the Kaiser has its vocal demands, Butt Philip admits it’s a lot shorter than his Wagnerian roles. ‘It’s demanding in terms of the tessitura, but you’re only on stage for about 30 minutes: a short scene with the Nurse at the beginning, then you have a huge gap before the big Act 2 solo then another huge gap until he’s turned back from stone into a living being, where there’s a duet with the Kaiserin and then the final ensemble, so it’s relatively manageable in terms of stamina.’ He cites Ben Heppner and James King as his heroes on disc.

‘You have to be able to sing big and beautiful at the same time, which is sort of my USP; my weakness, I suppose, in this repertoire is that I’m not as loud as some of the other guys who’ve sung this role in the past but my goal is to make up for that with beauty and elegance. But that does mean that in the really big moments, if the conductor lets the orchestra off the leash they will obliterate you. Fortunately, Donald Runnicles is a long-time collaborator and can keep the reins on.’

Strauss was in love with the soprano voice, but he wasn’t especially kind to tenors. ‘I suppose that’s true. But when people say that this role and Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos) are killers for the tenor, what they actually mean is that they’re killers for a tenor who doesn’t have the right kind of voice. Yes, the tessitura is extreme – the amount that you’re required to sit around G, A, B flat! – but I think Apollo (Daphne) is harder because, although it’s shorter, Strauss doesn’t give you space to reset and the final aria keeps getting higher and higher and louder and louder.

‘The Kaiser’s Act 2 scene, for example, is a 13-minute aria, but the first two minutes are purely orchestral – that wonderful cello motif! – and the next five are beautiful, right in the middle of the voice and very dolce, piano, almost like a Lied. It’s only really the last four minutes where it really gets big, whereas Apollo’s aria is just relentless – it’s badly written, actually. The Kaiser is more cleverly written, so it’s relatively forgiving. I haven’t done the other big ones yet. People tell me that Menelaus in Die ägyptische Helena is the really hellish one, but I’ve yet to encounter that!’ ON

David Butt Philip is the Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten at Deutsche Oper Berlin until 11 February

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Opera Now. Never miss an issue – subscribe today