Word: tristans
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...about creating a new anti-Wagnerian style. The result was the only opera he ever finished, Pelléas et Mélisande. Based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck, it had a shadowy, once-upon-a-time plot that actually bore a genteel resemblance to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde...
Debussy's singers have no arias-they sing as naturally as if speaking-while the orchestra sweeps along in the major role. Unlike Wagner's characters, Debussy's do not bemoan their fates; they simply submit to them. Nor is there any Wagnerian bellowing. Where Tristan shouts "Isolde! Geliebte!" at the top of his lungs, with the orchestra going full out, Pelléas whispers "Je t'aime...
...name singers were collected, then the repertory was fitted together to fill 22 evenings. Basso Rossi-Lemeni's commanding presence made it possible to schedule Mefistofele, Boris Godunov and Don Giovanni. Wagnerian Soprano Gertrude Grob-Prandl and Tenor Ludwig Suthaus were imported from Germany to do Tristan and Isolde and Die Walküre. At week's end, Italian Coloratura Contralto Giulietta Simionato and Tenor Cesare Valletti drew ovations in Massenet's rarely heard Werther. German Soprano Inge Borkh is on tap for Strauss's Elektra and Puccini's Turandot...
Metropolitan Opera (Sat. 2 p.m., ABC). Tristan and Isolde, with Traubel, Svanholm...
...despite some podium idiosyncrasies, Karajan is one of the most richly talented younger conductors in Europe today. He gave Tristan long and careful preparation, he showed full respect for the sacred score, and he wound up with a performance of freshness and precision. When it was over, Bayreuth's applause rolled...