Women's love and death

Times change, but the place doesn't. Tobias Kratzer, director of Frauenliebe und -sterben, combines masterpieces by three composers and wraps them in a narrative that resembles a great family epic. In the process, the supposed individual fates become panoramas of the customs and morals of our past and present. Robert Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben (Women's Love and Life) - 1840 depicts the fate of countless women: first love, marriage, marriage, birth and finally death. The feelings of the nameless protagonist revolve around the needs of her husband, who becomes more and more distant from her. A generation later, the current master of the house, Duke Bluebeard, brings home a new wife: Judith. The two are magically attracted to each other - she fascinated by the mysterious stranger, he by her splendor. But little by little, Judith discovers Bluebeard's past life and the abysses that lurk there. And another leap in time: in the Florentine tragedy, we see a completely new marriage structure - bourgeois, but thoroughly liberal. When Simone catches his wife Bianca having an affair with the young Guido, he forgives her. But traditional gender roles increasingly dominate. The ménage à trois escalates. In short: do people desire the same in all times? Where are the differences?