WAGNER & HEAVY METAL
  • Home
    • Donnerwetter!
    • From Metal to Wagner
    • From Rush to Lohengrin
    • Franz Liszt - The First Rock Star
    • The Wagner - Strauss connection
    • The day of Wagner & Heavy Metal
    • Classical picks
  • Latest
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2014
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Meistersinger
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Der Ring
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2018
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2023
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Tannhäuser 2023
  • One Ring to rule them all
    • Wagner & Tolkien: Ring to Ring
    • Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang 1924)
  • Metal Section
  • Nederlands
    • De kluis (recensies)
    • Trip naar Bayreuth (2014)
    • De tovenaar van Bayreuth (2014)
    • Bayreuther Meistersinger (2017)
    • Bayreuther Ring (2017)
    • Parsifal in Bayreuth (2018)
  • Contact

Tristan  und  Isolde , concert  performance

9/25/2015

0 Comments

 
In last weeks Rosenkavalier it took a fully staged production, in which everything fell into place, to won me over for this opera. I didn't need to be convinced about Tristan und Isolde. Several recordings (Furtwängler, Böhm and Kleiber to name but a few) already did the job before I went to see the concert performance with Jaap van Zweden and the Nederlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. With conductor and orchestra, already responsible for unbelievable beautiful renditions of Lohengrin and Parsifal in this venue, succes was almost garanteed. 

Wagner wrote Tristan und Isolde as an opera that could be performed with a minimum of theatrical means. Stuck in the second act of Siegfried, with the end of his Nibelungen-cycle nowhere in sight, it was made in order to make some money. It seems fit therefore to perform it in a concert hall without stage props. And Wagner's music is illusive enough. With a concert performance you don't run a risk that a staging build on poor choices collides with your own imagination when you walk through the cathedral of sound Wagner erected for the ill-fated love between Tristan and Isolde. What is missed in staging and acting has to come from orchestra and singers alone.

You known when you are in a good live performance when you stop comparing it to the discography that is in your head. The discography of Isolde I carry with me harbours the voices of Flagstad, Nilsson, Price and Stemme. And in their company the Isolde from Jennifer Wilson is not the most seductive one I know. Her voice his big enough, perhaps with some hard edges in the higher register, but by the time she arrives at her moment of transformation, Die Liebestod, she shines in all her glory.  She manages to silence the voices of the past that are on my mind.
Picture
Tristan & Isolde (Salvador Dali 1944)
In the week before this performance two singers fell ill. King Marke was originally meant to be sung by Matthias Goerne. A singer who worked with Van Zweden in this hall before and delivered a beautiful Schubert on that occasion. He was replaced by Falk Struckman. A powerful King Marke, strong and not too subtle. The loudest voice of the set. And Clifton Forbis, who was suposed to sing Tristan, even fell ill one day before the concert. Ian Storey came to the rescue and saved this event from being canceled. He did not had one rehearsal with the orchestra. Thus adding a new dimension to the term Heldentenor. But he is not the biggest voice and his Tristan was perhaps a little to small-voiced for this Isolde. In his third act monologue it seemed like he was short of stamina, not out-of-character for someone who is mortally wounded, but I found his performance a very satisfying one nonetheless. He did not overreach, perhaps would have be in somewhat better shape if he would have had time to prepare for this occasion, and sang a sensitive Tristan. I own a DVD with him, Waltraud Meier and Daniel Barenboim in La Scala, directed by Patrice Cheréau. It's the best Tristan on video I known. A production in which  characters of real flesh and blood take a stroll through the garden of love and lust. With perfect Personenregie from Cheréau. 

In the Concertgebouw the orchestra is on stage with the singers in front of it. It's the opposite from the configuration in Bayreuth. It's a matter of taste, more than of historical correctness - only Parsifal was composed with the acoustics of the Festspielhaus in mind, but  I think the balance between strings and brass benefits from it. The sound is more open comparing to Bayreuth where the brass, being in the back of the pit, can sound compressed. You can hear all instruments in the tutti, with special thanks to mr. Van Zweden who doesn't drive the fast lane. Like in his Lohengrin and Parsifal, Van Zweden is a careful ascender of zeniths, with a keen eye on the development of the drama that culminates in Isolde's Liebestod. Nothing can compare to a Liebestod that comes as a conclusion after four hours of Tristan and Isolde. It's beautiful as stand-alone aria but as climax on top of the complete opera it is simply without competition of anything I know in the world of opera.

Afterwards I feel like a junk. Out of the drug that was provided to me for the last few hours. Once it is over I want more. There is a sense of loss. Being cut off from the musical life support system that took my mind on a trip through the Wagnerian matrix. Outside the concert hall the world is dark and it starts to rain. And I look at it with just the most appropiate soundtrack imagineable in my head. I feel enriched, even spoiled, that all this is just on a ten minute bicylce ride from home. Tomorrow I'll swallow the blue pill but until then I walk with my head in chromatic clouds, the world of Tristan and Isolde.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN
    IDOMENEO CAUGHT IN A WEB
    SALOME: THE POETRY OF HORROR
    DIE ERSTEN MENSCHEN
    NOSFERATU
    ART AND WAR
    BLOOD INCANTATION: BEYOND SPACE AND SOUND
    IPHIGÉNIE IN MARIUPOL
    Bruckner's Bicentenary
    MAHLER ON PERIOD INSTRUMENTS
    DER FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER
    DIABOLUS IN MUSICA
    THE RHINE GOTHIC
    WAGNER & H.P. LOVECRAFT
    Wagner & Comic Books
    DIE WALKURE ON PERIOD INSTRUMENTS
    GOING TO LEGOLAND
    LIVING COLOUR
    SIEGFRIED IN A GLORIOUS WALL OF SOUND
    LOHENGRIN IN THE FACTORY
    CASSANDRA: Voices unheard
    The merciless Tito of Milo Rau
     Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny
    Bayreuth 2023
    THE STEAMPUNK RING
    The Day of the Dead
    Mahler and the Resurrection
    TIME
    KÖNIGSKINDER: A TRIUMPH IN TRISTESSE
    An EVENING WITH DER FREISCHUTZ
    DAS RHEINGOLD ON PERIOD INSTRUMENTS
    UPLOAD (LIVING IN A DATA STREAM)
    DER SILBERSEE
    A (POST) COVID PARSIFAL
    THE WRITE OF SPRING
    A DescenT Into The Nibelheim Of The Mind
    Eddie van Halen
    Wagner at the movies
    With Mahler and Stravinsky into the new year
    The return of Die Walküre
    Pagliacci / Cavalleria Rusticana
    (No) Bayreuth (Summer blog)
    Tannhäuser: what's on a man's mind
    About extreme music
    Die Tote Stadt
    Helmut Lachenmann in the Mozart sandwich
    Oedipe: is man stronger than fate?
    One More ... (Ring cycle)
    Marnie: opera & pictures
    The Halloween Top 10
    Jenufa: ice-cold reality & warm-blooded music
    ​My Parsifal Conductor: a Wagnerian Comedy
    Lohengrin: in the Empire of the Swan
    Die Zauberflöte in a roller coaster
    Ein Holländer in Bayreuth: Parsifal
    Heavy Summer (the road to Parsifal)
    Lohengrin in screenshots
    Lessons in Love and Violence
    Berlin/Blog: Faust & the claws of time
    The Gambler: Russian roulette with Prokofiev
    BACH/BLOG: BachFest Leipzig
    Der Fliegende Holländer, Wagner & Dracula
    The Christina cycle of Klas Torstensson
    La Clemenza di Tito: Mozart über alles
    Bruckner and the organ
    Gurre-Lieder: the second coming
    Parsifal in Flanders: Reign in Blood
    Tristan & Isolde and the impossible embrace
    Danielle Gatti & Bruckner's 9th
    On the birthday of Ludwig (Beethoven's  mighty 9)
    The dinner party from hell
    Zemlinsky & Puccini: A Florentine diptych
    La clemenza di Tito (Veni, Vidi, vici)
    Eliogabalo (here comes the Sun King)
    La Forza del Destino
    Das Wunder Der Heliane
    'Ein Wunder' to look forward to
    Ein Holländer in Bayreuth
    Franz Liszt in Bayreuth
    Salome & The Walking Dead
    Lohengrin in Holland
    ORFEO (Richard Powers)
    Wagner Weekend
    The Summer Of 2016
    Parsifal in Screenshots (Bayreuth 2016)
    Being Tchaikovsky
    Gustavo & Gustav: Dudamel & Mahler
    Haitink & Bruckner: a never-ending story
    Henry Rollins (spoken word)
    David Bowie
    For Lemmy and Boulez
    Boulez ist ToT
    Lemmy -  Rock In Peace
    The Battle: who's the better Lohengrin?
    Stockhausen and Heavy Metal
    Franz Liszt in the funny papers
    Tristan und Isolde
    Der Rosenkavalier
    Solti's Ring and Bayreuth in 1976
    Easter Chant (Via Crucis)
    Boulez turns 90
    Holy Tinnitus
    Franz Liszt in the Phot-O-Matic
    The Holy Grail
    Franz Liszt - Rock Star avant la lettre
    The best theater experience in my life
    Boulez in Holland

    TIMELINE

    May 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    May 2023
    October 2022
    June 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    March 2021
    October 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    January 2011

Picture
Wagner-HeavyMetal.com
  • Home
    • Donnerwetter!
    • From Metal to Wagner
    • From Rush to Lohengrin
    • Franz Liszt - The First Rock Star
    • The Wagner - Strauss connection
    • The day of Wagner & Heavy Metal
    • Classical picks
  • Latest
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2014
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Meistersinger
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Der Ring
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2018
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2023
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Tannhäuser 2023
  • One Ring to rule them all
    • Wagner & Tolkien: Ring to Ring
    • Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang 1924)
  • Metal Section
  • Nederlands
    • De kluis (recensies)
    • Trip naar Bayreuth (2014)
    • De tovenaar van Bayreuth (2014)
    • Bayreuther Meistersinger (2017)
    • Bayreuther Ring (2017)
    • Parsifal in Bayreuth (2018)
  • Contact