Tristan Robert
Dean Smith
Isolde Iréne
Theorin
Brangäne Michelle
Breedt
King Marke Robert
Holl
Kurwenal Jukka
Rasilainen
Melot Ralf
Lukas
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Peter
Schneider. Produced by Christoph Marthaler. Recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival, 9 August 2009
This production of Tristan by Swiss director Christoph Marthaler was first seen at Bayreuth in 2005, revived in 2008, and then opened the 2009 Bayreuth Season. It met with a mixed reception, to say the least, and it is not hard to see why. Traditionalists are likely to be up in arms at the absence of boats, trees, castles, sword fights and other staples of Tristan productions. At the other extreme, enthusiasts for Wieland Wagner’s 1950s minimalist psychodramas will be appalled at Marthaler’s determinedly affect-free approach, with characters turning their backs to the audience and staring hopelessly at empty walls.
I do not have much sympathy for the booing audience in 2005,
however. After a while one begins to appreciate the atmosphere of desolation
created by the sets, costumes, and extreme understated acting. Tristan and
Isolde’s doom was sealed long before the curtain rises on the first act, and the
production is built around the inexorable slide towards the carnage of the
final scene. The dowdy costumes and drab interiors accentuate the sense of
futility and the production culminates in a dramatic masterstroke, as Isolde
lies down on Tristan’s hospital gurney and pulls a white sheet over her head as
she expires at the end of the Leibestod.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the focus of the production,
the first and last acts are more successful than the second. Each of the
principals is most convincing in the absence of the other. Iréne Theorin’s
Isolde is visceral in Act 1 as she laments her betrayal by Tristan/Tantris.
Robert Dean Smith’s Tristan comes into his own in Act 3 as he regains
consciousness and slowly builds to the delirium scene where he hallucinates
Isolde’s arrival. His finest moment is ‘O dieser sonne’. Both are less
convincing in Act 2, although the ‘O sink herneider’ duet is sung with delicacy
and Robert Holl is a commanding Konig Marke.
The outstanding singer in this production is Iréne Theorin,
whose Isolde is deeply felt and thrillingly sung. In the final stages of Act 3
she moves compellingly from fury with the dead Tristan to a transcendent ‘Mild
und leise’. Robert Dean Smith has much less psychological depth as Tristan,
with a tendency to stand and belt out his lines. Jukka Rasilainen is a very
creditable Kurwenal, particularly fine in the first part of Act 3. Michelle
Breedt’s Brangäne is a very worthy partner to Theorin in the first two acts.
Peter Schneider’s conducts well. I appreciated his pacing in Act 1. It came across particularly well in the interlude between scenes 4 and 5. Act 2 was somewhat less convincing, with the two key dramatic entries of
Tristan and Kurwenal not as effective as they might have been. But momentum and
tension were maintained in Act 3.
The audio and visual quality of this Opus Arte CD are
characteristically excellent. It would probably not be an ideal “starter”
Tristan, but is certainly to be recommended for Theorin’s excellent Isolde and
Marthaler’s idiosyncratic and thought-provoking production.
