Tristan und Isolde from Bayreuth

[Maclintick]

It’s psychological. You don’t notice the wobble so much when you are there and can see the singer . Nyland’s wobble is less than Stemme’s and indeed on tonight s performance Schager’s . These spinto singers are being asked to to sing high and loud over a large orchestra - as they get older some wobble is more or less inevitable. It’s nothing compared to Gwyneth Jones believe me …
Nyland is nailing high note after high note singing live and loud full voice in an opera house - not in an recording studio with a £3,000 Neumann mic a foot in front of her. A superb performance.
The orchestra under Bychcov are also playing magnificently.

The orchestra are phenomenal, as they always are under whoever, at Bayreuth. I think you do Dame Gwyneth a disservice, but I take the point of visual impressions overriding auditory in the live context, which they obviously cannot do audio-only. Stemme has been the pre-eminent Isolde of the generations post-Nilsson, and that heard live her wobble, though noticeable, was less worrisome than Nyland's tonight. No-one would reasonably compare singing this part live in an opera house to a recording e.g. Margaret Price on Carlos Kleiber's, for instance, but against that one should note that the unique sunken Bayreuth pit layout was designed to specifically ensure that the voices weren't overwhelmed by the orchestra, and that singers weren't overstrained, as they were
tonight.

[kernelbogey]

I feel ambivalent about T&I.... I adore the Ring, and have had serious passionate periods of my life listening to it. But Tristan reminds me of the downside of The Ring - the long, history-recalling monogues by Wotan for example. I would give it a go tonight except that I actually do not feel up to 4 hours of Gesamtkunstwerk.

And for various (non-musical) reasons I heard only around a third of the broadcast, and was very impressed by the singing. I also found the short interview (was there more than one?) with the Icelandic Director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson illuminating for one who has been less than 100% enthusiastic about this piece. IIRC he said of Act II that it takes place entirely in Tristan's head. Go figure. I think I shall listen again.

[smittims]

Since Freud, this idea has been applied to other operas too, e.g. Der fliegende Hollander is all a dream by Senta; Erwartung is a recalled trauma of the woman in question under psychoanalysis.

[Belgrove]

I agree with kernelbogey that Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson’s commentary on his interpretation of the work during the intervals was fascinating and most illuminating. Tristan is less a drama than a work of metaphysics rendered into sound. But Georgia Mann’s presentation was unsatisfactory, being superficial, providing only a partial account of the synopsis, and using larky vocabulary. It didn’t inform or educate, seeking only to entertain, and failed there too.

[Ein Heldenleben]

And for various (non-musical) reasons I heard only around a third of the broadcast, and was very impressed by the singing. I also found the short interview (was there more than one?) with the Icelandic Director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson illuminating for one who has been less than 100% enthusiastic about this piece. IIRC he said of Act II that it takes place entirely in Tristan's head. Go figure. I think I shall listen again.

There was one before every act . From the terrible sound seemed he was being interviewed from a cave in Iceland. Very interesting interview - the whole opera of course turns on the love/death potion switch culminating in the Liebestod. Isolde dies in ecstasy and Tristan by failing to defend himself against Melot - arguably suicide. I don’t have a problem with the dream nature of Act3 - perfectly coherent .

Unlike the recent Act 2 of Fidelio at Covent Garden which made me never want to see a Regie produced travesty every again.PS The conductor and Leonore I definitely want to hear again…

[DracoM]

Love WAgner, BUT this perf was deffo not among my top ten. Seemed weak and spineless.