Tristan und Isolde, Royal Opera House, review: Overwhelming and emotionally magnificent
We will never see a more perfect Isolde than Nina Stemme
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.‘On the stage walk sounds, not people,’ wrote a perceptive German critic of Tristan, and that could be a summing up of the philosophy underlying Christof Loy’s cinematic and psychologically acute staging, now revived at Covent Garden.
There’s no boat, no sense of place, no medieval clutter; the costumes and acting suggest a timeless present; glimpses of a banquet which is revealed when a curtain is intermittently drawn back punctuate the action with tellingly symbolic images. What drives this production is Wagner’s mesmerising music.
Antonio Pappano and his orchestra have never been on better form, fuelling the drama with oceanic power and delivering superb solos, most notably from the cor anglais in Act Three. And there’s no weak link in the cast.
Iain Patterson makes an unusually memorable Kurwenal, and John Tomlinson’s King Marke offers a moving study in the impotence of old age. Sarah Connolly’s Louise Brooks-style Brangane is exquisitely sung, coming across as surprisingly girlish vis-à-vis the towering duo in the title roles.
To say that Stephen Gould’s Tristan measures up to Nina Stemme’s Isolde is the highest possible praise, because what this great Swedish soprano does with her Herculean role is technically, dramatically, and emotionally magnificent beyond words.
We will never see a more perfect Isolde than this.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments