Tristan from the Met in HD

[gradus]

Anyone going to the pictures this Saturday? Sir Simon is conducting and it looks promising.

[Belgrove]

Indeed I am and very much looking forward to it.

[BBMmk2]

Now this would be good to see! Hope the production be alright!

[DublinJimbo]

I'm going, despite a review which slated the production.

[kernelbogey]

I'm already committed for Saturday night. My local (Southampton) Picture House has an encore performance on Monday (possibly at 1230 - it's not clear).

[ARBurton]

I`ve previously thought it not really worth the cost of installing a motorised satellite dish and a different receiver simply to be able to record the occasional Met Wagner relay - having seen T+I at the cinema yesterday, I think I was wrong!

[Belgrove]

Very occasionally a director hits on a visual leitmotif for a work that is so appropriate that it becomes almost definitive. Mariusz Trelinski uses a total solar eclipse as metaphor for Tristan & Isolde's refuge from the light; a false night in which they conduct their subversion of society's social norms. It's a dark, dreadfully threatening, relentlessly bleak, and at times extraordinarily beautiful vision of the work. It plumbed the mysterious, profound and frankly unknowable depths of this work to a greater extent than any I have seen, and was able to mine fresh resonances and connections for how the back story connects to what we see. I've never seen Tristan's ravings in Act 3 actually portrayed, and linked from Marke, via Morold to the fate of Tristan's father, and Tristan's subsequent behaviour.

The two principals were superb, surviving and conquering the arduous demands Wagner asks of them. Rattle managed to create that ideal state in Wagner where time becomes relative, elastic. The orchestra was fabulous. There are repeat performances at cinemas today. Do catch it if you can, Stemme needs to be seen.

[gradus]

Afraid I'm with the 'slaters' concerning the production which imv exemplified the worst traits in Wagner production, as ever chacun...............
Did any other cinema fail to show the subtitles until Act3? The manager said it was a transmission fault and presumably affected other showings. Nuisance really as i went with two friends who had only a sketchy idea of what was happening which really spoilt their appreciation.
Fine singing and playing throughout. I've only ever seen Rattle in Parsifal before and I'd like to hear him again in Tristan when he's got a few more productions under his belt, for better or worse one gets imprinted with recorded performances by acknowledged great Wagner conductors.

[ARBurton]

Afraid I'm with the 'slaters' concerning the production which imv exemplified the worst traits in Wagner production, as ever chacun...............
Did any other cinema fail to show the subtitles until Act3? The manager said it was a transmission fault and presumably affected other showings. Nuisance really as i went with two friends who had only a sketchy idea of what was happening which really spoilt their appreciation.
Fine singing and playing throughout. I've only ever seen Rattle in Parsifal before and I'd like to hear him again in Tristan when he's got a few more productions under his belt, for better or worse one gets imprinted with recorded performances by acknowledged great Wagner conductors.

Subtitles came through fine at Malvern...

[Barbirollians]

If you do not like the production it is on iplayer on Radio 3 at moment though I assume more recent performances .

Stemme is one of the elect as Isolde I have rarely felt such electricity in an opera house as when she sang the role with Pappano at the ROH a few years back .

[DracoM]

Yep, I'm with slaters as well. Rattle's OK, the band is OK, but that Isolde................'fraid not. Yes, I KNOW the reputation, but....sorry....not for me.

[Barbirollians]

Yep, I'm with slaters as well. Rattle's OK, the band is OK, but that Isolde................'fraid not. Yes, I KNOW the reputation, but....sorry....not for me.

To each their own some people don't get Callas or Ferrier .

[DracoM]

[gurnemanz]

Stemme is one of the elect as Isolde I have rarely felt such electricity in an opera house as when she sang the role with Pappano at the ROH a few years back .

Very much with you on Stemme and that ROH staging a few years ago. Worth reminding Wagner fans about the Walküre from this year's Salzburg Easter Festival as pointed to by ARBurton elsewhere. I'm out on Saturday (Palace v Leicester at Selhurst Park) but recorder set. Especially keen to see Georg Zeppenfeld as Hunding after his marvellous Gurnemanz in last year's Bayreuth Parsifal. clip

[LHC]

If you do not like the production it is on iplayer on Radio 3 at moment though I assume more recent performances .

Stemme is one of the elect as Isolde I have rarely felt such electricity in an opera house as when she sang the role with Pappano at the ROH a few years back .

Stemme and Pappano will be reuniting in September next year, when the ROH brings the Ring Cycle back. Stemme as Brunnhilde is a major step up on all the previous incumbents in the ROH Ring, and will make this a revival that is worth catching.