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Barry Millington's rating
, Tristan und Isolde is a tragedy in black and white
By
Barry Millington
30 Sep 2009
Christof Loy has acquired something of a reputation for minimalist productions. Like his recent Lulu, his Tristan und Isolde is austerely monochromatic, Johannes Leiacker’s sets (starkly lit by Olaf Winter) evoking the realms of night and day.
The sets are equally spare: a chair and a box of phials in Act 1, a chair and table in Act 3, rising to the height of luxury in Act 2 with two chairs, a table and candelabra.
The stage is ingeniously divided into two, however. Most of the action unfolds in the front section, consisting of a brightly lit grey-white wall (day), counterposed by a black one (night). The latter is frequently retracted to reveal the (sometimes imagined) world of king and court.
In Act 1 we see the treacherous Melot, with Tristan, Kurwenal and their courtly male friends bonding at a banquet. It’s a world of dubious alliances and loyalties, its phantasmagorical quality enhanced by frozen tableaux and concealed views. For once, we really empathise with the blazing sense of indignity experienced by Isolde.
Just as there’s no ship in Act 1, so there’s no flowery bank for the Act 2 love duet. Yet there’s an authenticity in the way Tristan and Isolde, in their all-consuming passion, are oblivious to their surroundings.
Brangäne’s lonely watchtower vigil is enlivened by the attentions of Kurwenal, a tremendous performance by Michael Volle, bearing an alarming — but in the circumstances not inappropriate —resemblance to Jack Nicholson.
The lovers’ far from intimate tryst is, we find, under voyeuristic observation by the courtiers. At the conclusion their world, too, comes to a bloody end. Nina Stemme justifies her reputation as one of the finest Isoldes of this or any age with a supremely confident performance, incandescent in her anger, thrillingly ardent in her passion. If Ben Heppner didn’t quite maintain his initial security of line throughout the love duet, the trauma of his Act 3 breakdown was utterly convincing.
Sophie Koch’s Brangäne is a powerful presence, while Richard Berkeley-Steele’s Melot is brilliantly acted and sung. John Tomlinson’s patriarchal King Mark acquires almost biblical status by the end.
Antonio Pappano’s conducting, wonderfully sensuous and tingling in every fibre, complements Loy’s enthralling production.
Until 18 October (020 7304 4000, www.roh.org.uk). To be broadcast on Radio 3, 24 October.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (7)
I was fortunate enough to be on the right hand side, and so the production looked fabulous. If I had picked another seat, I am certain I would have had a very different view (literally and metaphorically).
Stemme simply superb. Heppner gave us a bit of the Jimmy Savilles in Act 2, which (rightly) drew audible gasps.
- Mark Humphreys, London, 06/10/2009 20:41
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Stemme,Koch and Volle wondeful,Hepner had an awful performance.Some of the singing and brilliant coducting and music playing saved the evening from a pretentious and banal production whhich fully deserved the poor reception it received.
- Carlos Olalla, London, 05/10/2009 22:39
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"Allowing the singing and acting to take centre stage" - If only! Those on the left would then have been able to see something other than the set. We weren't looking for safe, familiar cliches, Neil C. and Ian Winstanley - just for some people. We didn't 'miss the point' we literally couldn't see one.
Simon Bartlett is right - direction at its most inept.
- Patricia Marchant, Maidenhead, Berkshire, 05/10/2009 12:36
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If you were sitting anywhere on the left hand side of the auditorium the reception was entirely comprehensible - as for 75% of the time you gazed at a bare stage, as the action clung to a wall on the extreme edge of the stage. Basic stage direction at its most inept.
- Simon Bartlett, London, England, 01/10/2009 09:52
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Heppner was off-key most of the night, but that could be just a temporary thing. The production was good - the minimalism meant that you were totally concentrating on the interaction of the characters. The singing by Stemme was brilliant and she thoroughly deserved her ovation. Pappano and the orchestra were their usual outstanding selves and the end of the opera was spine-tingling. It was nice that there was none of the obnoxious premature applause that has recently been blighting the ROH.
- Paul Murray, London, England, 30/09/2009 18:36
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This production was an absolute triumph. The staging was perfectly approriate and indeed dramatic, and allowed the singing and acting to take centre stage. Stemme's performance must rank as one of the greatest operatic performances of all time. Quite remarkable. That must be due, in part, to the production, so those who booed the designer at the end of the performance whould be ashamed of themselves. They simply missed the point. The greatest production I have ever seen at the ROH.
- Neil C, London, 30/09/2009 17:09
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i agree completely, the direction was challenging and involving, i despair at those who turn up expecting to be fed safe familiar cliches. Stemme was fantastic, Volle gets better and better.
the lighting was an absolute triumph.
what a fantastic evening.
- Ian Winstanley, dunstable england, 30/09/2009 14:10
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