"Tristan und Isolde" at the Met

[+ WilliamM]

There still are a few tickets available for the Saturday afternoon, October 8 performance, but you need to check back every day for returns. Tickets are available for week night performances. Opening night will be streamed live on Monday, starting at 4:55 pm at Met's website.

 

I have never seen the opera, although it is one of the first I listening to on records. So I am happy for a decent seat for the Saturday afternoon performance.

[sydneyboy]

With the Australian tenor Stuart Skelton as Tristan. Please a review after the performance.

[+ g56whiz]

Tomassini in the NYT George Loomis in Musical America liked it musically especially for Rattle's conducting. Some issues wrt to the ship settling but they didn't overwhelm the performance. Saturday's matinee performance will be broadcast as the first of the Met's Live in HD opera of the season. I'm looking forward to it but won't get back to the US until the Wednesday evening rebroadcast of the Saturday broadcast.

[+ WilliamM]

Tomassini in the NYT George Loomis in Musical America liked it musically especially for Rattle's conducting. Some issues wrt to the ship settling but they didn't overwhelm the performance. Saturday's matinee performance will be broadcast as the first of the Met's Live in HD opera of the season. I'm looking forward to it but won't get back to the US until the Wednesday evening rebroadcast of the Saturday broadcast.

 

I had not thought about attending Saturday's performance at the Met and also the rebroadcast. Great idea. It's worked well for me in past season. I believe I have done it twice.

[whipped guy]

I had not thought about attending Saturday's performance at the Met and also the rebroadcast. Great idea. It's worked well for me in past season. I believe I have done it twice.

What is so interesting about seeing the show live in house and then seeing the same performance (or another performance with the same cast) a few days later is that they are two completely different visual experiences. Unless one is seated front row center there are often small details that are missed. A few years back I had not realized that when sitting in one of the balconies that the women's busts were literally bursting out of their costumes. The HD brought that really up close and very personal!

 

A couple of years ago a friend and I watched such an HD presentation and the two of us sat there mesmerized as if we were seeing it for the first time!

[+ quoththeraven]

The local NPR station broadcast a short interview yesterday with tenor Stuart Skelton, who is starring as Tristan.

 

http://www.wnyc.org/story/stuart-skelton-tristan-und-isolde

[+ WilliamM]

Thanks, very timely and thoughtful, QTR. I also enjoyed the review of opening night at the Met.

[TruHart1]

Yes, QTR, a nice, interesting interview with Mr. Skelton. Listening to the opening night performance, of course, I could not see the production but only hear the voices, and I rather liked Skelton's voice, though he, like the Isolde, Nina Stemme, sounded a bit tired in the last act. Tristan, dying all the way through the third act, can sound threadbare since he's supposed to be trying to put off his inevitable death until he sees Isolde one last time, when he can finally let his soul be released from his body. In the second act Liebesnacht duet, he was quite fine vocally to my ear, though.

 

Nina Stemme has been singing the heavier repertoire quite a few years now, and her voice is beginning to sound like it is difficult for her to keep it controlled if she sings louder than a certain level, so the big climaxes sound as if she's trying to maintain control of her vibrato and losing sometimes. I've seen videos of her and she is quite an excellent operatic actress, able to get her vocal meaning across and transfix the audience, even with her voice a bit uncontrolled in the middle and upper reaches at times. Listening to the evenness of the Brangäne, Ekaterina Gubanova, and comparing her plush, even tone during her "warnings" in the duet, one hears the stark contrast in quality between Stemme's and Gubanova's vocal control.

 

Finally, listening to Stemme's opening night Liebestod it felt as though she was very carefully trying to keep her voice contained. The opening night review at the link QTR furnished above mentioned that in the reviewer's opinion she was sounding "leathery" by the end of the opera. Stemme always sings intelligently but is constantly trying to keep her voice in control over time as it has aged, and the MET opening was no exception. Mr. Skelton says in the podcast that he believes the opening night performance was her 100th performance of the role, and I believe she likely may continue to sing Isolde until she retires! Even so, just as Maria Callas was at the end of her career, Stemme is always interesting to watch onstage, so I do look forward to seeing this production when it is telecast.

 

TruHart1

[gallahadesquire]

I have got to re-read https://www.amazon.com/Mawrdew-Czgowchwz-Review-Books-Classics/dp/0940322978

[TruHart1]

I have got to re-read https://www.amazon.com/Mawrdew-Czgowchwz-Review-Books-Classics/dp/0940322978

Well, Nina Stemme is no Madame Mawrdew!!! Loved that book, BTW, and my first acquaintance with it came about because of a long ago thread that spoke of it here on this very forum!!! :)

 

TruHart1

[TruHart1]

There still are a few tickets available for the Saturday afternoon, October 8 performance, but you need to check back every day for returns. Tickets are available for week night performances. Opening night will be streamed live on Monday, starting at 4:55 pm at Met's website.

 

I have never seen the opera, although it is one of the first I listening to on records. So I am happy for a decent seat for the Saturday afternoon performance.

I had not thought about attending Saturday's performance at the Met and also the rebroadcast. Great idea. It's worked well for me in past season. I believe I have done it twice.

Regarding your original post here, @WilliamM, enjoy all 4½ hours (with intermissions) on Saturday afternoon and then Wednesday again in the theatrical rebroadcast. That seems like quite a marathon you've set for yourself!

 

TruHart1

[whipped guy]

Hopefully @WilliamM will post his personal impressions of the production and the performance as well.

[uwsman2]

I was at the matinee today. Magnificent performance but I did not care for the production. Wagner's concept should be respected. Placing this in modern dress and sets is dramatically ridiculous. Some of the dialogue makes no sense, and the geographical setting and historical references sound weird.

[sydneyboy]

I am reminded of the Australian wit Clive James who said that Germany no longer sends its armies to invade Poland they their producers to invade the world's opera houses. I noticed that the producer of this new Met Tristan Mariusz Trelinski is a Pole. What conclusion can you draw? Have the Poles acquiesced and decided another German invasion is inevitable?

[whipped guy]

I was at the matinee today. Magnificent performance but I did not care for the production. Wagner's concept should be respected. Placing this in modern dress and sets is dramatically ridiculous. Some of the dialogue makes no sense, and the geographical setting and historical references sound weird.

 

I am reminded of the Australian wit Clive James who said that Germany no longer sends its armies to invade Poland they their producers to invade the world's opera houses. I noticed that the producer of this new Met Tristan Mariusz Trelinski is a Pole. What conclusion can you draw? Have the Poles acquiesced and decided another German invasion is inevitable?

 

I have come to the point where enough is enough with these bizarre and silly "concepts"!!! It is always best to see a work of art through the prism of its creators. However, that is no longer the case. Somehow the director needs a "concept". A concept that often supersedes what the composer and librettist intended. Plus, it totally confuses those new to the art form. Opera is a stretch from reality. We don't sing to each other in real life. At times there are women portraying men, not to mention other obsticals that might bewilder the uninitiated.

 

I have posted this many time before, but I had "words" with a now retired escort who lives a few blocks away from the MET. He had a client who took him to the opera. He actually thought that Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1831) was a Twentieth Century composer because the MET's lunatic staging takes place in the Twentieth Century, and he told me that I the one who was off the wall for saying otherwise! I guess he did not read the program where the history of the work's composition was discussed and the directors concept was explained!

 

What is sad is that when a production is traditional it is often described as being "dated"! I recall a production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut that was updated. How the hell Manon dies of starvation at the end when there are tons of POPEYE'S Louisiana Kitchens in the state I'll never know!

 

Guillaume Tell is up next. I hope they don't include a rape scene as was recently done at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden!!!!

[mike carey]

I take the points about some modernised productions escaping even the partial reality that is an opera, but I don't agree that it's a bad idea per se. Some theatrical pieces have a story that is applicable across the years and can be adapted. That can be a completely new story (think West Side Story) or a relocation of an existing one. For me, a setting of Madam Butterfly in 1947 Japan would work. Another example that works for me is injecting current themes into, say, the patter songs in G&S operettas. I remember a hilarious one where a Canadian production had the Major General singing about matters bilingual. It doesn't work all the time, but theatre comments on the reality of the day, and if an issue today matches an issue that an opera or a play commented on in the past, why not use it to make a comment to today's audience.

[whipped guy]

Some pieces have universal themes that transcend time. Also, some pieces were performed in "modern" dress at the time of composition so as to emphasize the relevance. Such pieces can work. However, in the 21st Century when an opera has a character who is consistently referenced as being a squire for example and the updated setting is a contemporary corporate boardroom then things get more than a bit suspect... as in the libretto is being forced into being made relevant when it was originally conceived as an excuse for entertainment.

 

With Gilbert and Sullivan some of the inside contemporary jokes are lost on us today, yet not surprisingly many are still quite germane to the present day!

[+ g56whiz]

RATS!!!!!

 

I was out of the country Saturday so I went to my local mall multiplex yesterday to catch the rebroadcast of Tristan. I was informed that they are remodeling (installing those footrest chairs) and have closed half their theaters and cancelled all "special showings" including opera until that's complete maybe sometime in November. It's over two hours to the next city that carries these Live in HD Broadcast. Thanks Cinamax. See how loyal I'll be when you reopen!!!

[uwsman2]

This Tristan is set in the present, but the libretto is not updated, so we have a king of Cornwall and Tristan is still a knight. And in an age of GPS and cellphones, we have all this tension in Act III about whether and when Isolde's ship is arriving. I saw computer monitors lit up on the set in Act II, so this is clearly set in the present. And who is that little boy wandering around the hospital bed in Act III, flicking a cigarette lighter in Tristan's face. This is supposed to be an ancient Celtic legend being enacted.

[+ WilliamM]

Regarding your original post here, @WilliamM, enjoy all 4½ hours (with intermissions) on Saturday afternoon and then Wednesday again in the theatrical rebroadcast. That seems like quite a marathon you've set for yourself!

 

I missed New York and the HD broadcast on Wednesday because of a bad back problem. In truth, it was more the strong medication than anything else. Even stopping the medication a week before going to NYC did not help much. No more medication! So I am looking forward to seeing TOSCA and WILLIAM TELL at the Met soon.

[+ g56whiz]

And who is that little boy wandering around the hospital bed in Act III, flicking a cigarette lighter in Tristan's face. This is supposed to be an ancient Celtic legend being enacted.

 

If I'm not mistaken, it's Tristan's vision of himself as a child. Trelinsky, the director, imagined Tristan as scarred by the early death of his parents. I know. Go figure.

 

While I've not seen this live or in HD (see above) I did catch a good bit of act 2 while driving Thursday night. Thank you SiriusXM. What struck me, in addition to wonderful singing was the diction. I could understand much of Isolde's lyrics and I'm not that fluent. Same with Tristan's.

 

They're rebroadcasting at least the audio portion of the HD performance for the Met radio audience in April since this run closes before that season begins. I'm hoping there's another SiriusXM live broadcast before this run closes.

[+ Charlie]

Bummer! T&I is definitely not an opera to sit through with a bad back.

[TruHart1]

If I'm not mistaken, it's Tristan's vision of himself as a child. Trelinsky, the director, imagined Tristan as scarred by the early death of his parents...

 

They're rebroadcasting at least the audio portion of the HD performance for the Met radio audience in April since this run closes before that season begins. I'm hoping there's another SiriusXM live broadcast before this run closes.

The Thursday night Sirius broadcast was the last new broadcast on Sirius of this Tristan this season. As you pointed out, they'll be broadcasting a pre-taped performance for an April radio Saturday matinée broadcast, most likely of the performance that was the HD live theater telecast last Saturday.

 

TruHart1

[bostonman]

In terms of all these concept productions, I think directors will claim that audiences are bored with the traditional stagings - but I think what's probably much more true is that the directors are bored.

 

In one case, it's even documented that the star was bored - when the Met hired Natalie Dessay to star in a new production of La Sonnambula, directed by Mary Zimmerman, supposedly Dessay only agreed on the condition that the production wouldn't be "the same old tired Swiss village" setting. The result of that, however - a sort of "backstage musical" concept where the singers in a dress rehearsal of La Sonnambula found themselves identifying too closely with their characters - or something like that - was one of the most awful confusing messes the Met has staged in recent times.

 

When a playwright or composer updates a piece and creates something wholly new from an older story - Anouilh's Antigone, Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera, etc, it's one thing. We could certainly argue as well that Wagner was taking ancient stories and putting a contemporary spin on them, depending on how you want to read into his attraction to the stories to begin with. And occasionally I have seen productions - some Shakespeare, some opera, a handful of musicals - with updated concept direction, that have worked. But for the most part, updated settings always always always leave a huge something to be desired.

 

Boston recently got the controversial Calixto Bieto production of Carmen - controversial for its rethought, updated staging, and also for its raw sexuality. The latter was not nearly as shocking as I was led to believe it was going to be - and in terms of the concept itself, most of it didn't make a case for why it was any better than what we're more used to seeing. Some of it made no sense. Some of it was just terribly directed. And some of it was unintentionally comical (that is to say, the choices made in the direction provoked derisive audience laughter - not because Bieto found humor he wanted to explore.) Musically, it was a pretty good performance - it's a shame that it often seemed to be working against the story instead of illuminating it. Ultimately, a truly wasted opportunity - especially as this was a landmark production, the first opera staged in the Boston Opera House in 25 years. (Since its recent renovation, it's essentially been used as a Broadway touring house.)

 

And let's not forget that one of the "wunderkinder" of concept opera productions was Peter Sellars, who was updating Mozart and Handel operas back in the 1980's, before "regietheatre" was really even a trendy term. And maybe it's time to go look back at the video of his Marriage Of Figaro, set in trump Tower - with new eyes, lol.

 

Or not.

[+ WilliamM]

In one case, it's even documented that the star was bored - when the Met hired Natalie Dessay to star in a new production of La Sonnambula, directed by Mary Zimmerman, supposedly Dessay only agreed on the condition that the production wouldn't be "the same old tired Swiss village" setting. The result of that, however - a sort of "backstage musical" concept where the singers in a dress rehearsal of La Sonnambula found themselves identifying too closely with their characters - or something like that - was one of the most awful confusing messes the Met has staged in recent times.

 

I saw that production at the Met. La Sonnambula is one of my favorite opera and I was never confused. Yes, Dessay and Florez are major opera stars, so I am not sure it would have work as well with unknowns.