Prom 19 - 27.07.13: Wagner – Tristan and Isolde

[Flosshilde]

It was normal practice to have the house lights on during performances, in part so that the audience could read the libretto (there would be obvious difficulties when candles were used in lowering & raising the lights). Wagner is credited with insisting on lights going out during performances, but I think it was, if not common practice, at least not unknown before him. & I think that having the house in complete darkness for the start of Rhinegold came about by accident (a power failure?) rather than design.

[marvin]

Put that down to poor diction !

But that is to found almost universally in all media nowadays. About the only time I can follow the plot in films is when they are of the old Black and White genre and then I don't need to turn on subtitles on my TV. Bad English and pronunciation is de rigueur, I am afraid to say. Unless one knew the libretto very well in any Opera sung in English I bet most of us wouldn't really be able to make out what was said, save for a few words.

[gurnemanz]

But that is to found almost universally in all media nowadays. About the only time I can follow the plot in films is when they are of the old Black and White genre and then I don't need to turn on subtitles on my TV. Bad English and pronunciation is de rigueur, I am afraid to say. Unless one knew the libretto very well in any Opera sung in English I bet most of us wouldn't really be able to make out what was said, save for a few words.

A laudable exception to this general slackness is the fragrant Kate Humble. (She can even enunciate Eyjafjallajokul correctly.)

[marvin]

A laudable exception to this general slackness is the fragrant Kate Humble. (She can even enunciate Eyjafjallajokul correctly.)

But then we're back to the luscious Katie Dereham, again, with her persistence in over pronunciation of anything 'foreign' e.g. Antonio Pappano. Just pronounce it as spelled (spelt) and DON'T rush it!

[Flosshilde]

It was a fine performance - Urmana and Dean Smith excellent. Well conducted (fast, which I like) and pretty well played. Though listening now to Gotterdammerung, I'm afraid the BBC SO is not a patch on the Staatskapelle in this repertoire.

I was able to see the TV broadcast last Friday. Unfortunately I wasn't hugely impressed by Urmana - a middling Isolde, I thought. Smith was brilliant in the last act - passionate & dramatic. I can't really say the same about him in Act 2, which I felt had no spark generally. In the interval Tom Service referred to 'orgiastic' music in Act 2. I thought this performance was rather limp.