Zurich: Tristan and Isolde with Nina Stemme and Ian Storey

Tristan and Isolde. Zurich Opera, December 18th 2008. Production: Claus Guth. Cast: Nina Stemme (Isolde), Ian Storey (Tristan), Michelle Breedt (Brangäne), Alfred Muff (King Marke), Martin Gantner (Kurwenal). Conductor: Ingo Metzmacher. Further information here.

For this new Zurich Opera production of Tristan and Isolde, German director Claus Guth chose to play out the love affair (rather: The alleged love affair) between Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck in the Zurich villa of Mathilde and her husband Otto. An idea, which both geographically and historically makes sense. Otherwise, however, it doesn´t really make sense, as this is, of course not what Tristan and Isolde is about at all.

However, Claus Guth, previously known from productions such as Figaro and Don Giovanni in Salzburg, Ariadne in Zürich and Walküre in Hamburg, is a superb stage director creating convincing theatrical drama by simple, yet powerful images. A photo gallery from the production here.

This new Zurich Tristan and Isolde takes place in and around Otto and Mathilde Wesendoncks Zurich villa. Brängane is Isoldes psychological double, making Act One flicker between dream and reality, starting as Otto Wesendonck (King Marke) takes leave of his wife (Isolde) in the bedroom upon which the entire act is framed.

For the second act, the bourgeois party of the Wesendoncks, characters intermittently freezing, while Tristan and Isolde circle each other as well as King Marke within shades of blue make for compelling images. The revolving stage is spun around continuously to reveal the various rooms of the Wesendonck villa culminating with Tristan and Isolde being exposed in front of Otto and his friends in the gentlemen-only cigar room during said party. For King Marke, there may be a happy end to the story as he ultimately reaches out to Brangäne after Isolde collapses next to Tristan at the lavish dinner table, following Tristan and Kurwenals long Third Act Scene, which takes place right outside the villa.

Again, conceptionally this is hardly what Richard Wagners Tristan and Isolde is about. But it nevertheless makes for rather compelling theater.

Ian Storey´s Tristan has previously been heard at La Scala, where he made his debut in the part in 2007 (also released on DVD) and at the Berlin State Opera. As on those occasions, Ian Storey does look the part. Here in Zurich he was audibly indisposed, coughing several times during the second act duet. And as a house representative appeared in front of the curtain before the third act, stating that Storey was indisposed, but would nevertheless continue, you knew you were up for some genuine Act 3 drama: Could he make it until he died? Yes, but only just. Indisposed or not, Storey´s Tristan was much similar to the above two occasions, with a vibrato too heavy for my taste. But, as said: He does look the part, which certainly counts for something.

Nina Stemme has become a much celebrated Isolde, after making her 2003 Glyndebourne debut in the part (available on DVD). And I would say approximately 95% of a random sample of the audience though her Isolde was entirely compelling. I belong to the 5%, who have never really taken to Nina Stemme´s voice, which has become increasingly dry and with a widened vibrato over the past years. That said, she certainly can sing the part, complete with effortless high C´s, though entirely effortless it was not for her. Furthermore she is a very convincing actress, radiating considerable warmth on stage. But no doubt, she does tear on her reserves with Isolde.

Of the rest Martin Gantner made a very convincing Kurwenal, Michelle Breedt a somewhat shrill Brangäne. Alfred Muffs King Marke was rather strange, either he was sharp or flat, virtually never on pitch and with a very uneven vibrato.

Ingo Metzmacher presented a fascinating reading of the score. With clarity obviously being a major aim, he relied heavily relying on the wood-winds and provided myriads of details I cannot remember ever having noticed before. A rather brisk reading, as well. Immensely different from the approaches of the likes of Barenboim and Thielemann, but nevertheless more than valid.

The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):

Nina Stemme: 4
Ian Storey: 4
Michelle Breedt: 3
Alfred Muff: 2
Martin Gantner: 5

Claus Guth´s concept: 5

Ingo Metzmacher: 4-5

Overall impression: 4

Berlin: Compelling Tristan with Barenboim, Meier, Storey and Salminen

Waltraud Meier as Isolde (here with Christian Franz)

Tristan and Isolde. Berlin State Opera, May 12th, 2008. Production: Harry Kupfer. Cast: Waltraud Meier (Isolde), Ian Storey (Tristan), Matti Salminen (King Marke), Michaela Schuster (Brangäne), Roman Trekel (Kurwenal), Reiner Goldberg (Melot). Conductor: Daniel Barenboim. Further information here.

The original cast for this performance was Peter Seiffert, Katarina Dalayman and Christof Fischesser. We heard Ian Storey, Waltraud Meier and (as a last-minute replacement) Matti Salminen. I have not heard anyone complain about these substitutions yet...

Much may be (and is) said of Daniel Barenboim. And whatever one may think about him or his accomplishments in other fields, or with other composers, there is general agreement that it is with Richard Wagner, that he truly excels.

While all his Wagner interpretations are genuinely top-class, Tristan and Isolde may represent the sum of his achievements: The electricity he generates from this score, in my opinion, is unmatched by any other conductor alive today.

In other repertoire, he may sometimes give the impression of going for the superficial effects. Not here. He completely masters the structure of the piece – the endless waves of the music, pushing forward relentlessly. Never loosing the big picture it was simply a thrilling performance. I suspect there to have been next to no orchestra rehearsals for this performance. Barenboim may not need it, but the brass section could have used some coordination of their entries, to put it mildly.

The advantages of the Berlin State Opera acoustics to the Bayreuth Festival House with regards to Barenboim´s interpretation of Tristan are obvious: In Bayreuth, the sound generated by the covered orchestra pit softly emerges from underneath blending uniquely with the singers, but you do not get the explosions in the orchestra possible here in Berlin.. This was a more edgy interpretation from Barenboim, compared to the Scala performances earlier this season, and he seemed to be experimenting with the woodwinds as well, leaving some of the rounded, ”Italianate” sound of the Scala performances behind. The result was completely compelling.

I believe I have stated so previously, but I have never heard better conducted live Wagner performances in my entire life than the ones Daniel Barenboim conduct at this house. Not even by Christian Thielemann, who sometimes does get close, though.

Of course, this performance was sold out. Apparently due to practical staging issues related to the company´s previous tour in Japan, this was a presumably one-time performance of the old Harry Kupfer production, as it was thought the new Herzog production would be back next season (which now doesn´t seem likely).

Waltraud Meier. I have never seen her deliver a performance that was anything less than completely compelling. Her interpretative powers, acting skills and pure presence on stage is of a magnitude that whether or not she exactly does hit all the notes precisely on pitch becomes completely irrelevant. The Narrative and Curse was probably the highlight of the entire opera. The variety in acting and word-colouring, the way she and Daniel Barenboim within micro-seconds adjust their tempi to each other was thrilling to watch.

And though irrelevant, she did in fact hit all the notes, the Cs somewhat more briefly than usual, and she was slightly sharper than usual in her high register. But the Liebestod, as always, completely on-pitch and with heart-breaking intensity. In the middle of a European recital tour, she understandably was cautious with her voice at the beginning, and only in the third act did she give the usual 100%, she would doubtless have given here from the start had she been able to plan her schedule around this performance.
As I´ve said before, in my book, she delivers the definitive interpretation of Isolde and I genuinely have no desire whatsoever to see anyone else in this part. Except for maybe Karita Mattila.

I heard Ian Storey´s Tristan earlier this season at La Scala, and his interpretation clearly benefits from this smaller house. Unfortunately (for me) there is a certain vibrato in his middle voice, that I genuinely dislike, but compared to the issues most of his Tristan-singing colleagues have, he has plenty of assets: He is an excellent actor. He convinces dramatically in the part. Furthermore, he looks quite good, and vastly better than most other Tristans around. He does have the high notes. He didn´t seem too tired i the third Act. He could go on to have a major career with this part. And those issues apart, he had superb on-stage chemistry with Waltraud Meier.

As the King Marke you would normally expect for this kind of performance is in New York, and the scheduled Marke Christoph Fischesser was ill, Matti Salminen was flown in from Zurich at the last minute. Matti Salminen´s interpretative powers as King Marke are of a magnitude, that he even after singing several bunches of completely wrong notes in the Monologue he delivered a compelling portrayal.

Michaela Schuster iwas a fine Brangäne. Not a beautiful voice, but effective and ways better than her dry and wobbly Venus last month. Though is´s still not obvious to me why she has to move on to Ortrud now (in both new Lohengrin productions in Berlin and Munich next year).

Roman Trekel as Kurwenal did not seem in very strong voice, and I wonder if these dramatical barytone parts really suit him?

And a curious thing: There was a lot of Chéreau in this production. In particular when Ian Storey covered Waltraud Meier´s eyes at the beginning of the "O sink hernieder" in Act 2. Unless, that of course was Kupfer´s orginigal intention? Also in several situations in Act 1 it seemed (fully understandably) like Ian Storey had imported Chéreau´s (excellent by the way) concept.

I don´t remember the last time I´ve seen standing ovations like this at the Berlin State Opera. Most were for Waltraud Meier, Matti Salminen and Daniel Barenboim.

If Daniel Barenboim doesn´t conduct the Tristan and Isolde next year in Berlin, one almost have to consider visiting the Metropolitan Opera to hear him there. Without Waltraud Meier though…

Not all cancellations are bad news: Waltraud Meier to appear as Isolde in Berlin next week

Earlier it was announced that Ian Storey is to replace Peter Seiffert in the upcoming Tristan and Isolde at the Berlin State Opera.

Today another cancellation was announced as Waltraud Meier replaces Katarina Dalayman as Isolde. No disrespect towards Katarina Dalayman whose Isolde I was quite curious to hear, having accepted that Daniel Barenboim initially chose to cast this Tristan with his upcoming Metropolitan Opera debut Tristan and Isolde pair Katarina Dalayman and Peter Seiffert (now: Ian Storey and Waltraud Meier as in the Chéreau La Scala Tristan earlier this season).

But I´d be lying if I said I was disappointed by this last cast change, which is almost too good to be true: I almost didn´t buy a ticket for this sold-out performance since Waltraud Meier wasn´t singing Isolde....

Tristan at La Scala: Pure magic

Tristan and Isolde, La Scala, Milano, December 20th. Production: Patrice Chéreau. Cast: Waltraud Meier (Isolde), Ian Storey (Tristan), Michelle DeYoung (Brangäne), Gerd Grochowski (Kurwenal), Matti Salminen (King Marke). Conductor: Daniel Barenboim. Further information here

Miracles of every size happened at La Scala yesterday evening: Beginning with my barely adequate seat in the second row in a box being transformed into a first-rate seat, when the people seated at the first row left after the first act. As it seemed, quite a few people don´t seem to go to La Scala to actually see the opera, in which case it is perfectly understandable that 5 hours and 30 minutes of Wagner may seem a bit excessive for showing off your clothes in the two 40-minute breaks. Just before the third act, I counted 11 completely empty boxes in the opposite half of the auditorium – slightly annoying, considering this entire Tristan and Isolde run was sold out in less than 2 minutes.

In brief: It a was a truly magical evening of the kind I´ll probably only experience a handful of times during my entire lifetime, if I´m lucky. The combination of Chéreau, Barenboim and Waltraud Meier was profoundly moving and even exceeding my wildest expectations.

First, Waltraud Meier: She simply doesn´t have any rival in the world as Isolde. I could try objectively to describe some of what has by other been described as her vocal shortcomings, however once she appears on stage and starts to sing, all these things cease to matter: Her committed acting and profound understanding of the part is immensely moving, overriding whatever vocal issues one may have with her - she simply commands the stage from beginning to the end completely without competition today – just listen to Isolde´s Narration and Curse from the 1st act. Or the intensity of her Liebestod, which paralyzed the entire house. I´ve never experienced anything like it. I actually managed to walk into a mirror on my way down from my box seat (well, it DID look like the staircase).

And Patrice Chéreau´s production was completely breathtaking: The sinister walls, the ship and the simple clothing provided the perfect neutral backdrop for this tragedy. For Chéreau´s true strength lies in making the characters come alive, in creating those grand emotional tableaus. The scenes between Siegmund and Sieglinde in his 1976 Walküre comes to mind, since basically it is the same thing he does here: Create tremendous emotions by the detailed stage direction in which scenes of epic beauty filled with real human emotions are the cornerstones. And his take on the story is the only way it makes sense: There is, of course, no love potion. By believing to be dying from the death potion, Tristan and Isolde admit to their feelings to each other, present (just as in the text) from the start.

Chéreau´s images just lingers on for days: The way Tristan touches Isolde's hair when she asks for revenge - the way Tristan grasps Isolde´s dress after drinking the potion - how the sailors remain frozen when Tristan and Isolde embrace - how Tristan and Marke embrace after the discovery of the couple - Marke desperately holding Isolde back when Tristan is fatally wounded - the blood trickling down Isolde´s chin during the Liebestod – I could go on. Moving beyond words. And by not making this a chamber drama, but placing additional non-speaking characters around the protagonists, Chéreau adds an extra dimension to the drama.

Last in this magical trio, Daniel Barenboim – both epic and dynamic conducting, never loosing the structure of the piece. The Scala orchestra doesn´t (yet) react with the same precision as they do in Berlin, but the sound was glorious. Interestingly, Barenboim´s approach here seemed more Italianate (emphasizing the grandness of the score rather than the usual string dynamics) than I´ve heard him do previously. Curiously Barenboim chose to place all brass and woodwind in the right side of the pit. I was sitting right above the brass section, but the acoustics seemed to balance out nicely. Of course, you´d be tempted to say, he conducted without a score. And is so familiar with Waltraud Meier´s Isolde (they probably have performed it more than 50 times together) that he´d sit down and drink a glass of water while she was singing and saved the standing up and clearly marking the beat for Ian Storey´s passages (where it was clearly needed).
For quite some stretches Barenboim doesn´t even mark the beat and just lets the orchestra play, pointing at various groups of players at a time. Amazingly, the first thing he did after both the 2nd and 3rd act was to immediately go down to one of the string players to have a lengthy discussion with him about some aspects of the score.

Since every new Tristan seems to be judged by Lauritz Melchior standards, British tenor Ian Storey obviously fell somewhat short in the reviewers eyes, and I don´t particularly care for his voice either, but he has one very important advantage: He actually looks and acts like someone Waltraud Meier´s Isolde could fall in love with. Particularly his third act was moving. And I cannot readily think of any of the contemporary Tristan´s that would have been as or more convincing physically. For that, I´ll gladly accept his vocal shortcomings.

At least when René Pape is not around, Matti Salminen is the optimal King Marke. He has exactly the right mixture of a both grand and sorrowful presence, as well as a voice in fine shape making a quite touching monologue. Gerd Grochowski was fresh-sounding as Kurwenal, but his voice seemed rather small. The only one that actually did disappoint was Michelle DeYoung´s shrill sounding Brangäne. But she could not take anything away from the magnificent achievements of the others.

A truly grand operatic evening. I sincerely hope I´ll live long enough to experience something like it again.

Tremendous success for Barenboim´s Tristan in La Scala season opening

Tristan and Isolde, La Scala, December 7th. Chéreau (p), Barenboim (c). Isolde: Waltraud Meier, Tristan: Ian Storey, Marke: Matti Salminen, Brangäne: Michelle DeYoung, Kurwenal: Gerd Grochowski. Further information here.

Tremendous success especially for conductor Daniel Barenboim in the premiere of Patrice Chéreau´s staging of Tristan and Isolde, which opened the season at the Scala opera in Milano this evening. Major Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera report on 13!minutes of applause, particularly for Barenboim. Before the performance started, one minute of silence was held to commemorate the death of 4 workers in a recent accident in Torino.

Also a prime social event, where the Presidents of Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece and the Emir of Qatar were present as well as 19 foreign government ministers, 3 Italian ministers and several high-ranking church officials were present (according to Corriere della Sera).

A small group of theater workers apparently protested outside the theater.

Several of the VIP guests were interviewed by Corriere della Sera ( my translation):

For President of the Republic (Italy) Napolitano it was "an extraordinary performance, truly sublime. A magnificent spectacle." An Italian Minister Rutelli has stressed the "very high level" of the work. Enthusiasm also from the Chairman of the Region, Roberto Formigoni, calling the work "spectacular" and said he was sure that this was supposed to be yet another "business card" for the candidacy for the World Exhibition of 2015.

Some, however, criticized the set design: The Senator for Culture in Milan, Vittorio Sgarbi, described the sets as "inappropriate, unjustified and communist". Even former Public Prosecutor in Milan, Francesco Saverio Borrelli, releasing a comment at the end of the first act, saying he was "very pleased, but he must emphasize - only from the point of view of the music. The set design he did not understand: What the Aurelian walls were about, and that ferry. Also the final rolling around of Tristan and Isolde is not according to Wagner, where love is essentially spiritual."

After the performance, the Municipality of Milano according to tradition had organized a reception for 900 people at the Palazzo Marino.

Reviews here.

Who is Ian Storey?

Interview in The Guardian today with the British ex-Furniture Designer now Wagnerian heldentenor Ian Storey who will make his debut this Friday in the Chéreau/Barenboim Tristan and Isolde opening the La Scala season.

Exerpts:

Storey arrived in Milan this spring to rehearse the role of Steva in Janácek's Jenufa. He discovered that La Scala had a problem: with eight months to go before the prestigious Wagner season opener, their chosen tenor had withdrawn. They were looking for alternatives. Might Storey be willing to fly to Berlin to sing for Barenboim?

Barenboim told Storey that a singer normally needs a year to learn the role, which is one of the most demanding in the repertoire. "He said to me, 'Look, you have five months before we start rehearsals.' And then he said to La Scala, 'Give him whatever he needs, an apartment, whatever. Because we have to get him ready.' Since then I've worked with James Vaughan from their music staff almost every day - nine or 10 hours a day as the rehearsal period got nearer. Since the start of April, I've only been home for four days. I've hardly seen my wife. "

Incredibly, Storey has never seen a performance of Tristan und Isolde. "I don't think I could sit still for long enough," he says.

La Scala Chéreau Tristan premiere directly on TV

Patrice Chéreau with Waltraud Meier and Matti Salminen (no - it´s actually Ian Storey!) from the Tristan rehearsals

The premiere of the Chéreau/Barenboim Tristan (details here), which opens the Scala season next Friday, will be transmitted directly on Arte: December 7th, 7 pm (CET) - details here

Strike threatens the season opening at La Scala: Chéreaus Tristan in danger of cancellation

The worker´s strike at the Scala opera in Milan is now threatening the 2007-8 Season opening on December 7th, featuring Patrice Chéreau and Daniel Barenboim´s new production of Tristan and Isolde. This will be Patrice Chéreau´s first Wagner production since the Ring in Bayreuth 1976, having turned down to offers to stage Tristan and Isolde there with Barenboim in the meantime - productions which then went to Ponnelle and Heiner Müller.

In a dispute over a new national collective agreement, the strike of the Scala employees have already led to cancellations of performances Verdi´s Requiem and Cosi Fan Tutte.

As I have a ticket for the 20th december, I am, as of now, quite calm. Perhaps the 20th December will in fact turn out to be the opening night..