WAGNER: Tristan and Isolde (complete opera)
Starring: Ian Storey, Waltraud Meier, Michelle DeYoung, Gerd Grochowski, Matti Salminen
Orchestra: La Scala Theater Orchestra/Daniel Barenboim
Studio: Virgin Classics 51931599
Video: 1.33:1 color
Audio: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo
Extras: None
Length: About 4 Hours (3 discs)
Rating: ****
DVD makers have not serviced Tristan and Isolde very well in the past few years. Usually there are critical failings that seriously mar the productions or even sink them. The Metropolitan production with Ben Heppner and Jane Eaglen was sunk by the singers’ lackluster acting and obvious physical limitations, along with Eaglen’s mediocre singing. The 1995 Bayreuth production by Heiner Müller, chained to a ridiculously distracting stage, delivers sound as crisp and sugary as children’s cereal. Then there is that 1973 Kultur production starring Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers, but don’t buy that one for name recognition, unless you like tinny sound and grainy film. I was beginning to lose all hope of obtaining a decent DVD of this opera.
Finally, Patrice Chereau, the famed director of the Ring Cycle from the early eighties, reappears and delivers a stunning Tristan and Isolde. It may not be perfect: Michelle DeYoung presents a sympathetic Brangaene with fine vocal range, but she is a bit overbearing in Act I. Ian Storey performs Tristan as a middle-aged, somewhat weary man, and his voice is not always as imposing as Siegfried Jerusalem’s. Yet he is convincing. Listen to the Act III extract “Dünkt dich das?”, in which Tristan regains consciousness and remembers his beloved Isolde. And throughout the entire Act II, Storey interacts with Waltraud Meier’s Isolde with poignancy and yearning, no longer obsessed with loyalty to his uncle King Marke. (By the way, it is never stated that King Marke and Isolde were married. So what if she fell in love with Tristan and rejected King Marke? The issue is rooted–as in Verdi’s Don Carlos–in class rank, an aspect largely ignored by academics.)
Meier is extraordinary, in this her third DVD of the role. She is the best Wagnerian dramatic soprano I’ve ever heard, with more range than Kirsten Flagstad and better acting chops than Birgit Nilsson. From the first scene in the ship’s hold (with the baggage!) in which she sings the angry “Wie lachend sie,” to her final “Liebestod (Mild und leise)” with blood dripping down her head, she remains in perfect character. She is unforgettably compelling. Chereau’s set is imaginative without being overbearing. Its naturalism adds greatly to the drama, like it did with his sets for the Ring Cycle. He uses two cinematic devices a bit too often—quick fades outs and double-exposed images—but they are effective when supporting the drama, such as the Act III scenes of the dying Tristan. Daniel Barenboim’s conducting is as well-wrought and smooth as a Henry Moore sculpture, better than what he did while fettered to the execrable 1995 Bayreuth production. Matti Salminen is tremendous, even definitive, as the wronged King Marke, who makes his Lear-like realization too late. The lighting throughout the opera is rather somber, fitting the work’s mood no doubt, but I advise you to watch it in a darkened room.
Tristan and Isolde finally has a DVD that will satisfy you for many years, thanks to the expert talents of Barenboim, Chereau, and Meier.
— Peter Bates
