Word: tristans
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Richard Wagner was determined to make a name for himself in Paris. So when the Paris Opéra rejected his latest work, Tristan und Isolde, Wagner dusted off his Tannhäuser, which had been produced in Dresden 16 years earlier, and Frenchified it. He wrote new music for a ballet in the first scene and reworked the character and music of the love goddess Venus in his best chromatic, post-Tristan style...
...latest to try. Director August Everding and Designer Giinther Schneider-Siemssen, are no exception. Their new Tristan und Isolde, which opened at the Met last week, undoubtedly will provoke arguments for as long as the production runs. To some, it may be a bold realization of the poetry in Wagner's libretto. To others, it will seem more like the further adventures of Mary Poppins, German style...
...Tristan (Jess Thomas) and Isolde (Birgit Nilsson) down their love potion on the deck of a palpably realistic ship. Suddenly they are obscured by swirling clouds, as if seen through a delicatessen window on a cold day. Later, in a dense, lushly tropical garden, they embrace, then shoot skyward via an elevator. They float among color-slide-projected stars, perch on the solid-looking edge of a planet examining a literal representation of the sun's corona, finally end their galactic tour by strolling across what seems to be an asteroid before ending up again in their dank garden...
Hallmark Aids. Throughout, Everding has succeeded in projecting the lovers' desire for eternal night and their equation of day with destructive reality. Tristan dies in a bleak courtyard as the sun burns harshly through a sea mist. But Isolde's Liebestod brings on more aeronautics. Arms outstretched, she again appears in the firmament, looking for all the world like a "Peace on Earth" Christmas card...
Conductor Erich Leinsdorf, returning to the Met after a ten-year absence, leads a performance that surges excitingly, especially when Soprano Nilsson pours forth oceans of brilliant sound. Tenor Thomas does not give the world the Tristan that it has lacked since Lauritz Melchior retired in 1950. He looks romantic, but is overwhelmed by Wagner's demands. Still, thanks to Leinsdorf and the unique Nilsson, there are moments when one can forget that this new Tristan looks like an astronomy lecture with visual aids from Hallmark...