Richard Wagner: Tristan and Isolde

“Dangerously fascinating, frighteningly and sweetly infinite,” was how Friedrich Nietzsche characterized the opera, Tristan und Isolde, written by Richard Wagner to his own libretto between 1857 and 1859. He drew inspiration from the epic, Tristan und Isolt, by Gottfried von Strassburg (d. around 1210), who in his turn based it drew on an ancient Celtic legend. The first company to show interest in staging the work was the Court Opera in Vienna. At the end of a string of 70 harrowing rehearsals between 1862 and 1864, though, the work was declared unperformable. Only after the intercession of Wagner’s admirer, Ludwig II of Bavaria, did the premiere take place, at Munich, on June 10, 1865, under the baton of Hans von Bülow. The Prague State Opera building saw four previous productions of Tristan und Isolde, premiered on September 1, 1896, March 31, 1907, March 9, 1912 (by Alexander Zemlinsky), and June 21, 1934. All of these stagings were mounted by the then New German Theatre. This means the anticipated new production will return Tristan und Isolde under this roof after an absence of 76 years!

• The production has been honoured by the patronage of
  the Richard Wagner Society in Prague.

Premiere: May 20, 2010

Response in the press

Jan Latham-Koenig, musical direction and conductor

Richard Wagner’s music, and in particular Tristan und Isolde, will always remain relevant to the public of today, because no other opera written during the 19th century has had and continues to have such a far- reaching influence on the development of music in the Western hemisphere throughout the 20th century. Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg, Puccini would be unthinkable today without the revolution in musical thought engendered by Tristan. Why? Because it opens up a new world of constantly changing and unresolved harmonies, cadences, the beginnings of a departure from pure tonality, but above all because of the uninhibited sensuality of the music. What is perfectly clear now is that Wagner, under the influence of a passionate attachment to Matilde Wesendonck, but, more importantly, intensely interested by Schopenhauer’s ideas about love, essentially stipulating that man can only achieve the inner peace he so craves by renouncing his desires, wrote the musical equivalent of Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and as Representation. Except that, through the music and the drama, a far greater number of people will be able to attain this feeling of emotional richness through a performance. I know of no other love duet that expresses the unbridled passions of lovers that must be kept secret, and that can moreover only end in death. The harmonic complexity and sheer range of orchestral colour create a tension in this music that ensures that those who attend a performance leave the theatre afterwards in a catatonic state.

Marcelo Lombardero, stage direction

Tristan und Isolde is a lyrical work in the innermost sense of the term. Its dramatic structure is all the more complex as the plot is acted out on the plane of music rather than on that of the words. Actually it’s music that represents the source and the guideline of the theatrical quality here, and consequently, the main emphasis of a staging concept should be on underpinning the aspect of the work’s dramatic development. A certain element of theatrical stillness which results from the lyrical-dramatic structure as such, oughtn’t be squandered in the process; rather on the contrary, what’s needed is to stretch out the time required for its fuller assimilation. The aim of our concept is to enhance the work’s visual dynamics, thereby making clear the story’s message. To achieve this, we use certain virtual devices instrumental in changing a stage that is otherwise virtually uniform. We didn’t think it necessary to set the story in any specific period, opting instead for a synthesis of the Middle Ages, Wagner’s time, and the present day.

Diego Siliano, sets

As this is an opera which has parts that happen to be extremely static from the viewpoint of dramatic action, it was our prime intention to fit this Tristan und Isolde out with a dynamic visual groundwork which would defy the traditional pattern of three different stage designs for the three acts. In pursuit of this aim, we decided to combine the concepts of theatre and film, achieving variety of stage setting by means of video projection. The application of this technology alone is in no way innovative; however, the visual concept of this particular Tristan und Isolde involved the devising of a specific virtual set design which makes it possible to change the stage so it may alternately appear either realistic, or dreamlike. In line with the staging concept’s option of no definite time setting, we have drawn on various aesthetic styles and genres, such as adventure film, comics, 3D animation, or drawing. These devices were employed in the making of a specific aesthetic of our stage creation.

Luciana Gutman, costumes

Tristan and Isolde’s story of love, desire, revenge, redemption, and ultimately, humanity, recurs through the ages. Why indeed, the Liebestrank, or love potion which eliminates moral inhibitions, still exists in various forms today… The costume design rounds off the staging’s basic visual concept in a stylistic symbiosis: it is neither historical, nor modern. It is about a search for synthesis between the age of Romanticism of the mid-19th century, and the present time, with a certain amount of reference to the format of cartoon strip. As regards the basic tone, I built my approach on harmony with the palette which dominates the stage, with distinct emphasis on the hues of the motionless, heavy, grey sea surface.