Word: tristans
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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WAGNER: OVERTURES TO THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, TANNHAUSER, TRISTAN AND ISOLDE, DIE MEISTERSINGER (RCA Victor). These preludes are classics, available in many different interpretations. Here Erich Leinsdorf leads the Boston Symphony with intelligence and vigor. A formidable protege of Toscanini's, Leinsdorf lacks the master's soul, and admirers of the more reflective Wagnerian school may find his performance somewhat grating. Yet those who like their Wagner with discipline and drive will enjoy the record...
...WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde (Angel 3588). Still the best recorded Tristan ever, with Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler and Soprano Kirsten Flagstad...
Love, Love, Love! Yet at Italy's Spoleto Festival last week, Gian Carlo Menotti's new production of Tristan had the audience putting on its glasses in a hurry. To create "sensuality on the stage corresponding to that of the music," Festival Director Menotti charted swirls of fluid movement and replaced the traditional austerity of Wagnerian scenery with velvet, flowers and drawing-room furniture. Menotti was also convinced that "when an Isolde looks like a virago and Tristan looks like a Swedish masseur, the love scenes risk becoming grotesque, even comical." So he filled the leading roles with...
Menotti coached them in a realistic acting style ("Love, love, love! Pure ecstasy!") and framed an Act II love scene that was definitely neither grotesque nor comical. A filmy-gowned Isolde and a bare-chested Tristan met in a forest glade that Menotti had sprayed with mood-inducing perfume; they kissed rapturously, and then, singing at the top of their voices, sank into a long, full-length embrace in the grass...
...finesse of the best Wagnerians. They were supported only adequately by the Belgrade Philharmonic. But if the performance fell short of a complete artistic triumph, it clearly earned a special place among modern Wagner productions. It will be remembered as the one that put the tryst back in Tristan...