We left at the interval...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday May 12 2019 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production: Ralf Pleger. Sets: Alexander Polzin. Costumes: Wojciech Dziedzic. Lighting: John Torres. Tristan: Bryan Register. König Marke: Franz-Josef Selig. Isolde: Ann Petersen. Kurwenal: Andrew Foster-Williams. Brangäne: Nora Gubisch. Melot/Ein Steuermann: Wiard Witholt. Ein Hirt/Ein junger Seemann: Ed Lyon. La Monnaie Orchestra and Men’s Chorus. This will be a shortish write-up as I'm off today for two weeks in Central Asia. La Monnaie's new Tristan can be summed up as an odd but genuine case of three sets in search of an opera. Alexander Polzin designed and built three impressive, monumental performance installations, not obviously related in any way to this particular plot but impressive, and with great potential. But in them, Ralf Pleger staged the degré zéro of opera directing, a pale imitation of Bob Wilson with everyone creeping round at a snail's pace, making putatively significant, ...

Théatre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Friday October 5 2018 Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen. Philharmonia Orchestra. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde , Prelude and Liebestod Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht Bruckner: Symphony N°7 ' Giving Wagner's Tristan , Bruckner, then Schönberg's Transfigured Night , in concert, is one way of staking out a certain history of atonality using three works. (...) The chord that opens this opera plunges the listener into tonal uncertainty verging on neurosis. (...) This masterstroke by Wagner would feed the post-romanticism of Bruckner and Mahler, then that of the first Schönberg, Zemlinsky, Korngold and Richard Strauss, the last romantic, astray in the age of radical modernity .' (Translated from the notes on the theatre's website.) As I stood up to leave for dinner after enthusiastic applause I remarked to my neighbour, of Bruckner's 7th as conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, "That was super-interesting." At the same moment...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Saturday May 21 2016 Conductor: Daniele Gatti. Production: Pierre Audi. Sets and costumes: Christof Hetzer. Lighting: Jean Kalman. Video: Anna Bertsch. Tristan: Torsten Kerl. Isolde: Rachel Nicholls. Brangäne: Michelle Breedt. King Marke: Steven Humes. Kurwenal: Brett Polegato. Melot: Andrew Rees. Shepherd, young sailor: Marc Larcher. Steersman: Francis Dudziak. Orchestre National de France. Chorus of Radio France. Wagner The first thing I wanted to say here, without introduction, is that Tortsen Kerl, as Tristan, was magnificent. In his act three delirium he was phenomenal, acting up a storm in a way I had no idea he had in him. It was a rare privilege to be there. The TCE's reasonable dimensions allowed him to sing and shape the part in a way few tenors can - often they recite or bark or almost shout it out in desperation (sometimes quite effectively, I must admit) - and in a way Kerl himself was unable to bring off as Siegfried in 201...

Salle Pleyel, Paris, Saturday October 13 2012. Conductor: Mikko Franck . Isolde: Nina Stemme. Tristan: Christian Franz. Brangäne: Sarah Connolly. Melot: Richard Berkeley-Steele. Kurwenal: Detlef Roth. King Marke: Peter Rose. Young Sailor: Pascal Bourgeois. Shepherd: Christophe Poncet. Steersman: Renaud Derrien. Chorus of Radio France. Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. There isn't much you can say about an evening of this kind, that has the whole Salle Pleyel on its feet at the end, bawling "Bravo!" (the French don't bother much with such niceties as "Brava" and "Bravi") and clapping rhythmically. I was reminded of a madman who used to be on one of several classical music forums I quit and often used the expression "in a zone", pinched, I think, from the world of sport. There are times, if you're really lucky, when a performance seems to move on to a trance-like plane, mesmerising the audience: in a zone. This was one. Tho...

ONP Bastille, Wednesday December 3 2008 Conductor: Semyon Bychkov. Production: Peter Sellars. Video: Vidéo Bill Viola. Tristan: Clifton Forbis. König Marke: Franz-Josef Selig. Isolde: Waltraud Meier. Kurwenal: Alexander Marco-Buhrmester. Brangäne: Ekaterina Gubanova. Melot: Ralf Lukas. Ein Hirt / Ein junger Seemann: Bernard Richter. Ein Steuermann: Robert Gleadow. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. This final reprise of Peter Sellars' production of Tristan (although this is the most expensive production of Gerard Mortier's tenure, the ONP's right to use the videos runs out soon and they will be delivered to the museums that bought them) was musically oustanding, with one sad exception. Either Waltraud Meier was having a singularly bad night, or her career as Isolde has ended. She could manage the middle range when the orchestra was quiet, and so played on that (and of course exploited her experience in the part to moving effect); but at most times it seem...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Saturday July 1 2006 Prelude to act 1, act 2 complete, prelude to act 3 and Liebestod Conductor: Kurt Masur. Isolde: Deborah Voigt. Tristan: Jon Ketilsson. Brangäne: Iris Vermillion. Kurwenal/Melot: Eika-Wilm Schulte. Marke: Georg Zeppenfeld. Orchestre national de France. Having followed her career with pleasure and travelled to places like London, Vienna and New York to hear more of her than simply in Paris, I had been worried by what I heard of Deborah Voigt’s Tosca at the Met, after her gastric bypass and amazing “downsizing”. So when Radio France sent out a letter announcing a concert not scheduled at the start of the season, I got tickets. I’m glad to be able to report, to the many of you holding your breath till now, that though her voice has changed, it has not changed much; and though, physically, she has shrunk amazingly, the vocal changes might be just those that come with age. Of course, I’m basing this on just one recent hearing, but for w...

Opéra National de Paris – Bastille, April 28 2005   Conductor: Esa Pekka Salonen. Production: Peter Sellars. Stage design: Bill Viola. Lighting: James F. Ingalls. Costumes: Martin Pakledinaz. Chorus master: Peter Burian. Tristan: Ben Heppner. König Marke: Franz-Josef Selig. Isolde: Waltraud Meier. Kurwenal: Jukka Rasilainen. Brangäne: Yvonne Naef. Ein Hirt/Ein junger Seemann: Toby Spence. Melot: Alexander Marco-Buhrmester. Ein Steuermann: David Bizic. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Remember Anna Russell? Like Brünnhilde in her 20-minute Ring , it sometimes seems to me that Peter Sellars, the former enfant terrible of opera productions, has in recent years completely gone to pieces, espousing a sententious, sentimental, old hippie/new age, vaguely moralising style ( El Niño, L’Amour de loin …) And now, in Bill Viola, he’s found a friend. Well, I’m an old hippie too, but I grew out of it. OK, I’ve given up smoking, but I’m not a vegetarian, I don’t wear Birk...

Paris, Théâtre des Champs Elysees, Sept 10 2003 Orchestre National de France, Kurt Masur; Deborah Voigt, soprano. Wagner: Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf dem Wartburg 1. Overture 2. Aria „Dich, teure Halle“ from Act II Wagner: Tristan und Isolde. Prelude and Liebestod . Wagner Comparison is said to be odious. As I’d heard Tristan , with Deborah Voigt, in Vienna this spring, it was impossible not to hear Wednesday’s Wagner/Bruckner concert (Orchestre National de France, Kurt Masur, Deborah Voigt) without comparing, and that turned out to be odious indeed. I wonder how Masur feels conducting such a such scrappy ensemble as France’s National Orchestra. In Tannhäuser , shaky woodwind attacks; trombones not in time with the strings; at the end of the overture, all that rapid, chromatic business that goes on among the upper strings while the main theme continues as a march underneath: it was unintelligible, there was no way of knowing what they were supposed to be playing. And in the Pre...

Wiener Staatsoper, May 29 2003 Conductor: Christian Thielemann. Production: Günter Krämer. Tristan: Thomas Moser. Isolde: Deborah Voigt. King Marke: Robert Holl. Brangäne: Petra Lang. Kurwenal: Peter Weber. Melot: Markus Nieminen. Shepherd: Michael Roider. Sailor: John Dickie. Steersman: In-Sung Sim. Orchestra and Chorus of the Wiener Staatsoper. “A spectacular Isolde” ( www.andante.com ). “Lyrical beauty and sumptuous colorings… where other Isoldes turn strident or even resort to faking when the vocal line lifts above high A here and there, Ms. Voigt, whose top voice is her glory, reveled in those ecstatic high C's” (New York Times). “… Nothing tentative or unformed about it. The opulent voice, with its rich bloom, took full command of the music and asserted itself impressively even during the most climactic orchestral passages. And Voigt gave color and shape to the words” (International Herald Tribune). “One glorious torrent of sound” (Financial Times). The professionals have spo...