Plot

After many years of wandering around the world, an anxious composer chooses love over art. But it may be too late to salvage either. Franz Schreker was a popular composer in the early decades of the 20th century, until his music was banned by the Nazis because he was of Jewish background. Der ferne Klang, his first major work, is a late Romantic opera of grand passions. Director Christof Loy is back at the Royal Swedish Opera with a production set in a dreamlike mise en scène.

Act I

Fritz, a young, ambitious composer, lives in a small German town. He abandons his true love, Grete Graumann, who is from a family of simple means, to devote himself to his music. He sets off in search of a distant sound that he hears within, one he finds hard to put down on paper. Unfettered and free, he hopes to find the mysterious sound that still eludes him. Since he still loves Grete, he promises to return to her as soon as he has established himself as a composer.

Once he has left, Grete's parents try to marry her off to the landlord of a local inn in the hope of settling debts run up by the drunkard father. Grete runs away from her nightmarish parental home and follows an old woman into the forest at night. The woman promises her joy and happiness with a handsome young man. Grete hopes to see Fritz once again.

Act II

Ten years have passed. Deceived by the old woman, who turned out to be a procuress, Grete is now a coveted courtesan at a luxury brothel near Venice. Admiring aristocrats swarm around her, among them a count who wants her for himself and is ready to sweep her away.

Grete, who by now has been with hundreds of men, still longs for Fritz. She challenges her suitors to a contest, where the prize is a night with her for free. Whoever touches her heart with the most imaginative piece of music, story or song will be the winner.

In a gloomy ballad, the count laments his unquenchable desire for her, and a seasoned chevalier sings a chanson about the meaninglessness of marriage. Soon, the divided audience demands that Grete declare the chevalier as the winner.

At that very moment, a stranger appears. It is Fritz, now a well-known composer. He has yet to find the distant sound he has been seeking. Fritz and Grete recognise each other at once and fall into each other's arms. However, when Fritz realizes that Grete is now a prostitute, he leaves her for the second time. The count claims his prize and takes the distraught Grete away with him.

Act III

Fifteen years later, a German opera house is staging an opera that Fritz has finally completed. Grete, who after a brief period with the count was thrown out onto the streets, is back in Germany, now a common streetwalker. She sees the composer's name on the opera advertising board and goes to see the performance. Strongly moved by the tale, which is basically her own life story, Grete leaves the theatre before the performance ends. As the audience streams out of the opera, she hears that the work is deemed a failure, and that it will hardly outlive its dying creator. Doctor Vigelius, who was involved in the plans to marry off Grete all those years ago to the landlord, and who feels like an accessory to her wretchedness, recognizes her and promises to bring her to Fritz.

The morning after the failed premiere, Fritz receives a visit from his friend, Rudolf, who has come to cheer him up. He believes that Fritz should be able to rewrite the final act, thereby completing his masterpiece. Feeling that death is near, however, Fritz only wants to see the woman he caught a glimpse of in the audience at the performance the night before, and who left the opera early.

Suddenly, Fritz once again hears the sound within him that had been eluding him for so long. Doctor Vigelius brings Grete to him. The pair promise never to part again, but Fritz's journey through life has come to an end. He realizes that he could only hear the sound in the company of Grete and dies in her arms.