Photos: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico
Nawrath
Oxana Arkaeva
Christian Thielemann, a
musical chief of a festival, is undoubtedly a leader in this revival of
“Tristan and Isolde” from 2015. We experience a superior, three-dimensional
orchestra sound, that entirely unfolds and blossoms in excellent acoustics of
Wagner’s theatre. Thielemann leads and accompanies, firmly keeping all the
dynamic reins in his hands. One could physically feel his love and devotion to
the score in its smallest detail mastering a majestic, passionate, dreamy,
explosive sound culminating in the most beautiful piano in Isolde’s death
scene. The love triangle between Isolde,
Tristan and King Mark builds up a center of the story. Isolde, an Irish
princess, must marry King Mark, whom she doesn't love. The one she does love is
Mark’s devote knight Tristan, whom Mark also raised up as a son. Tristan, who
is himself is in love with Isolde, summons his emotions, renounces his passion
in favor of King Mark and is about to sail with Isolde towards Cornwall. The
long days on the board of a ship are filled with random, inconclusive
encounters between both and Isolde's desperation and rage. She is determined to
put an end to her and Tristan's life and prepares a death potion that would
kill them both instantly. Brangäne, Isolde’s devote companion switches the
death drink to a Love one, thus laying a foundation for the curse-like,
unhappy, inescapable love-passion. At the King Mark´s castle, Isolde, already a
Queen, and Tristan, full of love and longing for each other, ignore all the
rules of court and indulge their passion. Tristan, who betrayed his King not
only as a ruler but also as a parent, is, in turn, betrayed by one of his close
friends and deadly injured in the fight. In his castle, he yearns for Isolde
and curses the damned love potion. King Mark, initially devastated by Tristan's
treason, learns from Brangäne of the real reason behind. He hurries to
Tristan’s castle to bestow him with forgiveness. However, it is already too
late. Tristan, who managed to live through Isolde's arrival, is dead.
Inconsolable Isolde mourns her beloved and dies at his side. Katharina Wagner, composer’s
great-granddaughter and an artistic director of the festival, took over the
staging abstracting herself from the emotional story background.
She disregarded the Wagner's love
passion towards Mathilde Wesendonck, with whom he fell in love during his exile
in Zurich and created, together with stage designers Frank Philipp Schlössmann and
Matthias Lippert, a minimalistic, but clear, enveloped in dim light (Reinhardt Traub) esthetic staging.
Costumes by Thomas Kaiser, also
minimalistic in its design and colours, look like modern time garments. Ideally
corresponding with the dreary, somber tale of two unfortunate lovers, this
concentration on the actual love story between Tristan and Isolde seems to
reflect Wagner's/Schopenhauer's theses of great love and the pure will for its
great renunciation. In the act one, we experience a stairway maze labyrinth of the ship that
allows clear separation and concentration on the singular personal drama. In
the second act, we witness Isolde and Tristan creating their love paradise
island in the middle of the height-tech prison yard of King Mark’s castle. The
third act takes place in Tristan’s castle, where stage director creates a
touching atmosphere of grief and eternal parting. Katharina Wagner’s idea of
perpetually disappearing headless Isoldes placed within illuminated triangle
cages, symbolizes lover´s futile attempts to escape their fate as well as the
evanescence of life. In the act one, we experience a stairway maze labyrinth of
the ship that allows clear separation and development of the singular personal drama.
In the second act, we witness Isolde and Tristan creating their love paradise
in the middle of the height-tech prison yard of King Mark’s castle. The third
act takes place in Tristan’s castle, where stage director creates a touching
atmosphere of grief and eternal parting. Katharina Wagner’s idea of perpetually
disappearing headless Isoldes placed within illuminated triangle cages,
symbolizes lover´s futile attempts to escape their fate as well as the
evanescence of life. The singer's ensemble is
throughout presented with great Wagner voices highlighting Stephen Gould as powerful yet sensitive Tristan: A real Wagner
singer par excellence. The mezzo-soprano
Petra Lang as Isolde had some difficulties on that night and needed quite a
time to get in vocally. More concentrated on the sound than diction, Lang often
sacrificed the understanding of the text. Her most touching moment was the
beginning of the famous death scene (Liebestod), that she started, together
with Thielemann, in most breathtaking piano. Brangäne of Chrysta Mayer sang with powerful round mezzo and excellent
diction. René Pape as King Mark
rounds up this quartet with great sound and enormous stage presence. Baritone Ian Paterson as Kurnewal of and tenor Raimund Nolte as Melot, tenor Tansel Akzeybek as shepherd/young
Sailor and baritone Kay Stiefermann as
helmsman completed this singing cast more with excellent singing and
acting. Even though the production was met with
numerous, although not really deserved Buh-calls for the staging, this
production undoubtedly can be viewed as a successful one advocating giving it a
try. It allows us to experience surprising, hidden shades of this great opera
plot and evokes grand emotions for its phenomenal music. The production will
return next summer on July 27th, 2018.
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