Where was Tristan und Isolde first performed?
Tristan und Isolde discography
This is an audio and video discography of Tristan und Isolde, an opera by Richard Wagner which was first performed on 10 June 1865 in Munich.
Irene Dalis
That was the first of 274 performances with the Met Opera company; it lasted through 20 seasons. She was particularly noted as Amneris in Verdi's "Aïda", a part she sang 69 times at the Metropolitan. She was Brangäne when Birgit Nilsson sang her first "Tristan und Isolde" at the Met in 1959, Amneris when Leontyne Price debuted in Aïda at the Metropolitan in 1961 and Princess di Bouillon for Plácido Domingo’s Met debut in "Adriana Lecouvreur". She also performed with soprano Leonie Rysanek frequently, most notably 17 performances of "Die Frau ohne Schatten", as well as in Salome and Aida.
Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld (July 2, 1836July 21, 1865) was a German Heldentenor and the creator of the role of Tristan in Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde". His career was curtailed by a serious illness which killed him at the age of 29, after only four performances in the role of Tristan.
Almast
The first performance of "Almast" took place in 1930 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. On January 20, when the Yerevan State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet was opened, a performance of the opera was given in Armenian in Tigran Hakhumyan's translation. It was performed also in Tbilisi, Tashkent, Novosibirsk and Odessa. It was re-staged in Yerevan also in 1939, 1969, 1971 and 1983.
In 1951 The Russian Chamber Opera Theatre in Paris gave a performance of "Almast" in the Mutualité Hall.
Roberta Knie
In 1975, Knie made her United States opera debut with the Dallas Opera as Isolde in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde". The following year she returned to the Bayreuth Festspielhaus to sing the "Ring" again, made her debut with San Francisco Opera as Brünnhilde in "Die Walküre", and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the role of Chrysothemis in Strauss's "Elektra". Over the next several years she sang lead roles at most of the world's leading opera houses including the Vienna State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Opéra National du Rhin, La Monnaie, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, the Welsh National Opera, the Royal Swedish Opera, Opéra de Montréal, the Teatro Colón, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Issé (opera)
"Issé" was first performed in a concert version without a prologue in the Salle de la Belle-Cheminée at the Palace of Fontainebleau on 7 October 1697. At the request of Louis XIV, a prologue was added for the official premiere, a concert performance on 17 December at the Trianon (Versailles) for the festivities surrounding the marriage of Princess Marie Adélaïde of Savoy to Louis' grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, to whom "Issé" was dedicated. Louis XIV was so pleased with the work after its performance at the Trianon, that he gave Destouches a purse containing 200 "louis". The first full staging by the Paris Opera (with the prologue and three acts) was on 30 December 1697 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris. Destouches revised it in a grander five-act form for its revival at the Palais-Royal on 14 October 1708. "Issé" was so successful, it remained in the repertory there until 1757. It was also given again a number of times at the court up to 1773. Madame de Pompadour sang the title role for a production in the Théâtre des Petits Cabinets at the Palace of Versailles in 1749.
Kirsten Flagstad
After singing operetta and lyric roles such as Marguerite in "Faust" for over a decade, Flagstad decided to take on heavier operatic roles such as "Tosca" and "Aida". The part of Aida helped to unleash Flagstad's dramatic abilities. In 1932, she took on the role of Isolde in Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" and appeared to have found her true voice. Ellen Gulbranson, a Swedish soprano at Bayreuth, persuaded Winifred Wagner to audition Flagstad for the Bayreuth Festival. Flagstad sang minor roles in 1933, but at the next season in 1934, she sang the roles of Sieglinde in "Die Walküre" and Gutrune in "Götterdämmerung" at the Festival, opposite Frida Leider as Brünnhilde.
Tristan und Isolde
Kurwenal has brought Tristan home to his castle at Kareol in Brittany. A shepherd pipes a mournful tune and asks if Tristan is awake. Kurwenal replies that only Isolde's arrival can save Tristan, and the shepherd offers to keep watch and claims that he will pipe a joyful tune to mark the arrival of any ship. Tristan awakes ("Die alte Weise – was weckt sie mich?") and laments his fate – to be, once again, in the false realm of daylight, once more driven by unceasing unquenchable yearning ("Wo ich erwacht' weilt ich nicht"). Tristan's sorrow ends when Kurwenal tells him that Isolde is on her way. Tristan, overjoyed, asks if her ship is in sight, but only a sorrowful tune from the shepherd's pipe is heard.
Hermann Weigert
In addition to managing his wife's career, Weigert worked as a guest conductor at numerous German opera houses from 1948-1955; including conducting several performances with his wife in the cast. He notably conducted recordings of his wife portraying the roles of Isolde in "Tristan and Isolde", the title role in "Salome", and Brünnhilde in "Götterdämmerung"; the latter of which won the Grand Prix du Disque.
Tristan und Isolde
The conductor Bruno Walter heard his first "Tristan und Isolde" in 1889 as a student:
Arnold Schoenberg referred to Wagner's technique of shifting chords in "Tristan" as "phenomena of incredible adaptability and nonindependence roaming, homeless, among the spheres of keys; spies reconnoitering weaknesses; to exploit them in order to create confusion, deserters for whom surrender of their own personality is an end in itself".
Tristan und Isolde
For some years thereafter, the only performers of the roles were another husband-wife team, Heinrich Vogl and Therese Vogl.
Margaret Matzenauer
Matzenauer made her debut (as a mezzo) at the New York Metropolitan Opera in "Aida" on 13 November 1911, singing Amneris on opening night with a cast that also featured Emmy Destinn as Aida and Enrico Caruso as Radamès, with Arturo Toscanini on the podium. A few days later she displayed her versatility by appearing in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde".
Egisto (opera)
It was first performed in Venice at the Teatro San Cassiano in 1643. Highly successful in its day, it was subsequently performed throughout Italy.
Tristan und Isolde
The first production outside of Germany was given at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London in 1882; Tristan was performed by Hermann Winkelmann, who later that year sang the title role of "Parsifal" at Bayreuth. It was conducted by Hans Richter, who also conducted the first Covent Garden production two years later. Winkelmann was also the first Vienna Tristan, in 1883. The first American performance was held at the Metropolitan Opera in December 1886, conducted by Anton Seidl.
Ticho Parly
In 1965 Parly returned to New Orleans, for Tannhäuser, in Tito Capobianco's production. The same year found him in Mexico City for the same opera, now with Montserrat Caballé. In 1966, he recorded a disc of Wagnerian excerpts for Deutsche Grammophon conducted by Peter Maag (published on Compact Disc in 2017, with previously-unpublished recordings of excerpts from "Fidelio" and "Der Freischütz"), and made his Covent Garden debut in "Siegfried" (with Hans Hotter and Sir Georg Solti) and returned for Tristan in "Tristan und Isolde" in 1973. In 1966, he performed in "Fidelio" at the Teatro Colón; the next year he sang Tristan there.
Suzanne Juyol
She made her debut at the Monte Carlo Opera in 1947, where she began singing Wagnerian roles such as Kundry, the two Brunhildes and Ortrud. The success was such that she was invited to sing at the Berlin Staatsoper in "Tristan und Isolde", opposite Max Lorenz, in 1951.
Tristan and Iseult
Tristan material in this revival included Alfred Tennyson's "The Last Tournament", one of his "Idylls of the King"; Matthew Arnold's "Tristram and Iseult"; and Algernon Charles Swinburne's epic poem "Tristram of Lyonesse". Thomas Hardy's "The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse" is a one-act play which was published in 1923 (the book includes an imaginary drawing of the castle at the period). Rutland Boughton's opera "The Queen of Cornwall" (1924) was based on Thomas Hardy's play.
Kirsten Flagstad
The in Hamar, Norway, contains a private collection of opera artifacts. Her costumes draw special attention, and include several examples on loan from the Metropolitan Opera Archives. Her portrait appears on the Norwegian 100 kroner bill and on the tail section of Norwegian Air Shuttle planes. "That voice! How can one describe it?" wrote opera critic Harold C. Schonberg in his "New York Times" obituary of Flagstad. "It was enormous, but did not sound enormous because it was never pushed or out of placement. It had a rather cool silvery quality, and was handled instrumentally, almost as though a huge violin was emitting legato phrases." Incredibly, Flagstad sang the role of Isolde 70 times on the Met stage from 1935 to 1941, making "Tristan und Isolde" one of the greatest box office attractions in Metropolitan Opera history. Nine of those performances were Saturday matinee radio broadcasts.
Tristan und Isolde
Brangäne returns to Isolde to relate these events, and Isolde, in what is termed the "narrative and curse", sadly tells her of how, following the death of Morold, she happened upon a stranger who called himself Tantris. Tantris was found mortally wounded in a barge ("von einem Kahn, der klein und arm") and Isolde used her healing powers to restore him to health. She discovered during Tantris' recovery, however, that he was actually Tristan, the murderer of her fiancé. Isolde attempted to kill the man with his own sword as he lay helpless before her. However, Tristan looked not at the sword that would kill him or the hand that wielded the sword, but into her eyes ("Er sah' mir in die Augen"). His action pierced her heart and she was unable to slay him. Tristan was allowed to leave with the promise never to come back, but he later returned with the intention of marrying Isolde to his uncle, King Marke. Isolde, furious at Tristan's betrayal, insists that he drink atonement to her, and from her medicine chest produces a vial to make the drink. Brangäne is shocked to see that it is a lethal poison.
Tristan und Isolde
There are several DVD productions of the opera including Götz Friedrich's production at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin featuring the seasoned Wagnerians René Kollo and Dame Gwyneth Jones in the title roles. Deutsche Grammophon released a DVD of a Metropolitan Opera performance featuring Jane Eaglen and Ben Heppner, conducted by James Levine, in a production staged by Dieter Dorn and a DVD of the 1993 Bayreuth Festival production with conductor Daniel Barenboim and featuring Waltraud Meier as Isolde and Siegfried Jerusalem as Tristan, staged by Heiner Müller. More recently Barenboim's production at La Scala, Milan, in the production by Patrice Chéreau has also been issued on DVD. There is also a technically flawed, but historically important video recording with Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers from a 1973 live performance at the Théâtre antique d'Orange, conducted by Karl Böhm.
Tristan und Isolde
Wagner called the prelude the "Liebestod" (Love-death) while Isolde's final aria "Mild und leise" he called the "Verklärung" (Transfiguration). In 1867 his father-in-law Franz Liszt made a piano transcription of "Mild und leise", which he called "Liebestod" (S.447); he prefaced his score with a four-bar motto from the love duet from act 2, which in the opera is sung to the words "sehnend verlangter Liebestod". Liszt's transcription became well known throughout Europe well before Wagner's opera reached most places, and it is Liszt's title for the final scene that persists. The transcription was revised in 1875.
Trapunto quilting
One of the earliest surviving examples of trapunto quilting is the Tristan Quilt in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a linen quilt representing scenes from the story of "Tristan and Isolde" which was made in Sicily during the second half of the 13th century. Another piece of the Tristan Quilt, thought to be from a pair to the V. & A.'s example, is in the Bargello, an art museum in Florence.
Milanollo
After performances in many cities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the tour reached Trieste in August, and then regained their native Piedmont, from which they had been absent for six years. They played a benefit concert in Turin, but also in Savigliano and other places, and finally performed at the royal castle of Govone, in the presence of Queen Maria Theresa of Habsburg and Tuscany. Between 6–30 November the sisters completed 8 concerts in La Scala, Milan, and in December 1843 performed in Venice after concerts in Verona and Padua. They also played a concert in Trieste in December, on their way back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Milka Ternina
Ternina's North American debut took place in Boston in 1896, when she sang Brünnhilde in "Die Walküre" with the Damrosch Opera Company. In 1898, she appeared for the first time in opera in London, performing Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde". She would continue to appear at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, until 1906, achieving a total of 98 appearances there in a variety of operas.
Ticho Parly
Ticho Parly (né Frederick Christiansen) (16 July 1928 – 21 June 1993) was a Danish-born Heldentenor who sang leading roles in most of the major opera houses of Europe as well as the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, where he debuted in 1966 as Tristan opposite Birgit Nilsson in "Tristan und Isolde".
Tristan und Isolde
Man, according to Schopenhauer, is driven by continued, unachievable desires, and the gulf between our desires and the possibility of achieving them leads to misery while the world is a representation of an unknowable reality. Our representation of the world is Phenomenon, while the unknowable reality is Noumenon: concepts originally posited by Kant. Schopenhauer's influence on "Tristan und Isolde" is most evident in the second and third acts. The second act, in which the lovers meet, and the third act, during which Tristan longs for release from the passions that torment him, have often proved puzzling to opera-goers unfamiliar with Schopenhauer's work.
Herbert von Karajan
Karajan's career was given a significant boost in 1935 when he was appointed Germany's youngest "Generalmusikdirektor" and performed as a guest conductor in Bucharest, Brussels, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Paris. In 1938 Karajan made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin State Opera, conducting "Fidelio". He then enjoyed a major success at the State Opera with "Tristan und Isolde". His performance was hailed by a Berlin critic as "" (the Karajan miracle). The critic asserted that Karajan's "success with [Richard] Wagner's demanding work "Tristan und Isolde" sets himself alongside [Wilhelm] Furtwängler and Victor de Sabata, the greatest opera conductors in Germany at the present time". Receiving a contract with Deutsche Grammophon that same year, Karajan made the first of numerous recordings, conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in the overture to "The Magic Flute". On 26 July 1938, he married operetta singer Elmy Holgerloef. They divorced in 1942.
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
Large opera productions to have taken place in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden until now include:The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saxon State Orchestra Dresden, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, and the leading orchestras from the USA, Great Britain and Italy perform regularly in the Festspielhaus. 
Baden-Baden opera productions are developed in part as co-productions, with stages including the New York Metropolitan Opera: Iolanta (2015), Manon Lescaut (2016), Tristan und Isolde (2017); also with the Operá de Bastille (Paris / The Magic Flute 2014/2015).
Tristan and Iseult
The earliest representation of what scholars name the "courtly" version of the Tristan legend is in the work of Thomas of Britain, dating from 1173. Only ten fragments of his "Tristan" poem, representing six manuscripts, have ever been located: the manuscripts in Turin and Strassburg are now lost, leaving two in Oxford, one in Cambridge and one in Carlisle. In his text, Thomas names another "trouvère" who also sang of Tristan, though no manuscripts of this earlier version have been discovered. There is also a passage telling how Iseult wrote a short lai out of grief that sheds light on the development of an unrelated legend concerning the death of a prominent troubadour, as well as the composition of lais by noblewomen of the 12th century.
Tristan und Isolde
In a world first, the British opera house Glyndebourne made a full digital video download of the opera available for purchase online in 2009. The performance stars Robert Gambill as Tristan, Nina Stemme as Isolde, Katarina Karnéus as Brangäne, Bo Skovhus as Kurwenal, René Pape as King Marke, and Stephen Gadd as Melot, with Jiří Bělohlávek as the conductor, and was recorded on 1 and 6 August 2007.
Ariadne auf Naxos
It was first performed in Italy in Turin at the on 7 December 1925 (in an Italian translation by O. Schanzer); in Sweden in Stockholm on 27 November 1926 (in Swedish); in Brussels on 17 March 1930 (in a French translation by P. Spaak); in Helsinki on 12 May 1931 (in a Finnish translation by A. af Enehjelm); in Rome at the Teatro Reale on 28 March 1935 (in German); Antwerp on 28 September 1935 (in Flemish); and in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 10 September 1937 (in German).
Deborah Voigt
Although Voigt's Fach is that of the "dramatischer" soprano, she has recently—overlooking the 2003 Vienna performances as Isolde—made the transition into singing the "" soprano with her interpretation of Isolde from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde". She sang the role in the 2007/08 season at the Metropolitan Opera and in the 2008/09 season at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. During one of the performances at the Met, Voigt took ill and had to leave the stage. She returned at the next performance of "Tristan und Isolde" and finished the run to acclaim by most reviewers, including "The New York Times". However, some critics, including "The New York Sun", panned her performance.
Tristan und Isolde
Although "Tristan und Isolde" is now widely performed in major opera houses around the world, critical opinion of the opera was initially unfavourable. The 5 July 1865 edition of the "Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung" reported:
Eduard Hanslick's reaction in 1868 to the prelude to "Tristan" was that it "reminds one of the old Italian painting of a martyr whose intestines are slowly unwound from his body on a reel." The first performance in London's Drury Lane Theatre drew the following response from "The Era" in 1882:
Mark Twain, on a visit to Germany, heard "Tristan" at Bayreuth and commented: "I know of some, and have heard of many, who could not sleep after it, but cried the night away. I feel strongly out of place here. Sometimes I feel like the one sane person in the community of the mad; sometimes I feel like the one blind man where all others see; the one groping savage in the college of the learned, and always, during service, I feel like a heretic in heaven."
Lisuart und Dariolette
The opera was first performed in a two-act version at the Rannstädtertor Theater, Leipzig on 25 November 1766. A revised version in three acts was produced on 7 January 1767.
Queen Ginevra of England sends the knight Lisuart to find her lost daughter Dariolette. In the course of his mission, Lisuart has to answer the riddle: "What gives women the most pleasure?"
Ute Vinzing
In the 1983/84 season she appeared as Isolde at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in East Berlin, conducted by Heinz Fricke, alongside ) as Tristan.
Tristan und Isolde
With the passage of time, "Tristan" became more favourably regarded. In an interview shortly before his death, Giuseppe Verdi said that he "stood in wonder and terror" before Wagner's "Tristan". In "", writer and satirist George Bernard Shaw writes that "Tristan" was "an astonishingly intense and faithful translation into music of the emotions which accompany the union of a pair of lovers" and described it as "a poem of destruction and death". Richard Strauss, initially dismissive of "Tristan," claimed that Wagner's music "would kill a cat and would turn rocks into scrambled eggs from fear of [its] hideous discords." Later, however, Strauss became part of the Bayreuth coterie and writing to Cosima Wagner in 1892 declared: "I have conducted my first "Tristan". It was the most wonderful day of my life." In 1935 he wrote to Joseph Gregor, one of his librettists, that "Tristan und Isolde" was "the end of all romanticism, as it brings into focus the longing of the entire 19th century."
Holztrompete
A Holztrompete (Wooden Trumpet), an instrument somewhat resembling the Alpenhorn in tone-quality, designed by Richard Wagner for representing the natural pipe of the peasant in "Tristan und Isolde". This instrument is not unlike the cor anglais in rough outline, being a conical tube of approximately the same length, terminating in a small globular bell, but having neither holes nor keys; it is blown through a cupshaped mouthpiece made of horn. The Holztrompete is in the key of C; the scale is produced by overblowing, whereby the upper partials from the 2nd to the 6th are produced. A single piston placed at a third of the distance from the mouthpiece to the bell gives the notes D and F.
Wagner inserted a note in the score concerning the cor anglais for which the part was originally scored, and advised the use of oboe or clarinet to reinforce the latter, the effect intended being that of a powerful natural instrument, unless a wooden instrument with a natural scale be specially made for the part, which would be preferable. The Holztrompete was used at Munich for the first performance of "Tristan and Isolde", and was still in use there in 1897. At Bayreuth it was also used for the "Tristan" performances at the festivals of 1886 and 1889, but in 1891 Wilhelm Heckel's clarina, an instrument partaking of the nature of both oboe and clarinet, was substituted for the Holztrompete and was found more effective.
Germaine Lubin
In 1930 she sang the role of Isolde ("Tristan und Isolde") at the Paris Opéra for the first time and met with an ecstatic reception. Her physical beauty —she was tall, slim and blonde— and her strong, even voice made her ideal for the part. She went on to sing it again in Paris in 1938 (this time in German, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler), and in London in 1939 (at the invitation of Sir Thomas Beecham). In July 1939 she became the first Frenchwoman to sing Isolde at Bayreuth (under the baton of Victor de Sabata). At Bayreuth, she established friendships with members of the Wagner family. She was even complimented by Adolf Hitler, who said she was the finest Isolde that he had heard.
Romolo ed Ersilia (Hasse)
Romolo ed Ersilia is an opera in three acts composed by Johann Adolph Hasse to an Italian-language libretto by Pietro Metastasio. The opera was commissioned by Empress Maria Theresa to celebrate the marriage of her son Leopold to Maria Luisa of Spain. The opera was first performed on 6 August 1765, the day after their wedding, in the court theatre of the Imperial Palace in Innsbruck. The opera received its first performance in modern times in 2011 during the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.
Tristan und Isolde discography
There are several DVD productions of the opera including Götz Friedrich's production at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin featuring the seasoned Wagnerians René Kollo and Dame Gwyneth Jones in the title roles. Deutsche Grammophon released a DVD of a Metropolitan Opera performance featuring Jane Eaglen and Ben Heppner, conducted by James Levine, in a production staged by Jürgen Rose, and a DVD of the 1995 Bayreuth Festival production with conductor Daniel Barenboim and featuring Waltraud Meier as Isolde and Siegfried Jerusalem as Tristan, staged by Heiner Mueller.
Franz Strauss
Despite his personal distaste for Wagner, both as a man and a musician, Strauss's strict professionalism drove him to devote all his technical mastery to the important horn solos in Wagner's operas. He led the horn section in the premieres of "Tristan und Isolde," "Das Rheingold," and "Die Walküre." Wagner said, "Strauss is a detestable fellow but when he blows his horn one cannot sulk with him." At the conductor Hermann Levi's invitation, Strauss played in the premiere of "Parsifal" at Bayreuth in 1882. After a bad attack of influenza, Strauss was unable to play the horn for 18 months, but continued to play in the Court Opera orchestra as a violist, in which capacity he took part in the first performance in Munich of Wagner's "Tannhäuser".
Gottfried von Strassburg
Gottfried von Strassburg (died c. 1210) is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance "Tristan", an adaptation of the 12th-century "Tristan and Iseult" legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival" and the "Nibelungenlied", as one of the great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages. He is probably also the composer of a small number of surviving lyrics. His work became a source of inspiration for Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" (1865).
Tristan (Henze)
Scored for piano, tape and full orchestra, it takes the form of a homage to Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde", with the piano providing preludes to a series of widely divergent material, both live and on tape, including direct quotations from Brahms's First Symphony and Chopin's "Funeral March", a birdsong-like treatment on tape of a recording of a soloist singing Isolde's part and a child reading extracts from Joseph Bédier's account of the death of Isolde (in the English translation by Hilaire Belloc) as well as a recording of a human heartbeat.
Cheryl Studer
In March 2004, Studer sang her first complete Isoldes in three concert performances of the work, in Münster, Germany,
opposite the Tristan of tenor Wolfgang Schmidt. Before these complete Isoldes, she had sung excerpts from all three acts of "Tristan und Isolde" in Gießen, Germany (in 1999), opposite the Tristan of tenor Heikki Siukola.
Tristan und Isolde
In the years before World War II, Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior were considered to be the prime interpreters of the lead roles, and mono recordings exist of this pair in a number of live performances led by conductors such as Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner, Artur Bodanzky and Erich Leinsdorf. Flagstad recorded the part commercially only near the end of her career in 1952, under Wilhelm Furtwängler for EMI, producing a set which is considered a classic recording.
Mary Bothwell
In 1947 she made her first European tour which included performances in Germany, the Netherlands, and England. That same year she was praised at the Scheveningen Festival for her portrayal of the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier". She was also celebrated for her portrayal of Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde", a role she notably performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Adrian Boult in 1948. She performed on radio in New York City, Paris, London, and Basel. Among her recordings for Royale are An Hour of Lieder:Bothwell was elected president of the Canadian Women's Club of New York City in 1958. During her term as president she encouraged the careers of young Canadian performers.
Tristan (Henze)
Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, it was premiered on 20 October 1974 under Colin Davis at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The piano soloist was Homero Francesch, who later recorded it with the composer conducting.
Bill Viola
In 2004, Viola began work on a new production of Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde", a collaboration with director Peter Sellars, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and executive producer Kira Perov. The opera premiered at the Opéra National de Paris in 2005 and Viola's video work was subsequently shown as "LOVE/DEATH The Tristan Project" at the Haunch of Venison Gallery and St Olave's School, London, in 2006. During 2007, the in Sevilla, organized an exhibition at the Palace of Charles V in la Alhambra- Granada- in which Viola's work dialogues with the Fine Arts Collection of the museum.
Tristan und Isolde
On 21 July 1865, having sung the role only four times, Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld died suddenly – prompting speculation that the exertion involved in singing the part of Tristan had killed him. (The stress of performing "Tristan" has also "claimed" the lives of conductors Felix Mottl in 1911 and Joseph Keilberth in 1968. Both men died after collapsing while conducting the second act of the opera.) Malvina sank into a deep depression over her husband's death, and never sang again, although she lived for another 38 years.
Ariadne auf Naxos
The United States premiere of the opera was given in German by the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company at the Academy of Music on 1 November 1928. Conducted by Alexander Smallens, the cast included Alma Peterson as the Primadonna/Ariadne, Charlotte Boykin as Zerbinetta, Irene Williams as the Composer, and Judson House as the Tenor/Bacchus. It was presented by the Juilliard School in New York City in English in a translation by A. Kalisch on 5 December 1934 with a cast of students including Josephine Antoine as Zerbinetta, Mack Harrell as Truffaldino, and Risë Stevens as Dryad. The opera was performed for the first time in Canada by the New York City Opera on tour at the Montreal Festivals in 1946.
Oreste
The opera was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 18 December 1734. A notice in the London press said :Last Night their Majesties were at the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden, to see the Opera of Orestes, which was perform’d with great Applause.
(London "Bee", 19 December 1734). The work was performed three times in Handel's lifetime and was first revived in 1988. Among other performances, "Oreste" received a staging by the English Bach Festival at the Linbury Studio Theatre in the Royal Opera House, London, in 2000, and was staged for the first time in the USA at Juilliard School in 2003. The work was staged by the Royal Opera, London, at Wilton's Music Hall in 2016.Years before the action of the opera, the young princess Ifigenia narrowly escaped death by sacrifice at the hands of her father, Agamemnon.At the last moment the goddess Diana, to whom the sacrifice was to be made, intervened and replaced Ifigenia on the altar with a deer, saving the girl and sweeping her off to Tauris. She has since been made a priestess at the temple of Diana in Tauris, a position in which she has the gruesome task of ritually sacrificing foreigners who land on King Toante's shores. Ifigenia hates her forced religious servitude and has had a prophetic dream about her younger brother Oreste and believes that he is dead. Meanwhile, Oreste has killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge his father Agamemnon with assistance from his friend Pilade. He becomes haunted by the furies for committing the crime and goes through periodic fits of madness.
National Theatre Munich
During its early years, the National Theatre saw the premières of a significant number of operas, including many by German composers. These included Wagner’s "Tristan und Isolde" (1865), "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" (1868), "Das Rheingold" (1869) and "Die Walküre" (1870), after which Wagner chose to build the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth and held further premières of his works there.
Dara Hobbs
Hobbs has appeared at the Bayreuth Festival from 2013 as Ortlinde in "Die Walküre". She performed at opera houses in Europe and the US, often in parts by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. She performed Ariadne at the Leipzig Opera, the Staatsoper Hannover and the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon. She appeared as Senta in "Der fliegende Holländer" at the Sarasota Opera in Florida, as Sieglinde in "Die Walküre" at the Frankfurt Opera, and as Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde" at Theater Bonn, Theater Chemnitz, Theater Regensburg, Stadttheater Minden, and at Schloss Neuschwanstein. The performance in Minden, staged by Matthias von Stegmann and played by the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie conducted by Frank Beermann, with Andreas Schager as Tristan, received international recognition. A reviewer from Vienna wrote called her performance sensational and described in detail her voice as well-trained, clear, full, and at the same time mellow and with metal luster in high range ("bestens durchgebildete, klare, große Stimme, zugleich weich, warm, voll und mit Metallklang in den Höhen, wo gefordert"), a voice to express the dramatic situations.
Gottfried von Strassburg
Gottfried's work was rediscovered in the late 18th century, and is the source of Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" (1865).
Blanche Thebom
Thebom's first prominent engagement as a performer came in November 1941 when she made her first appearance as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Eugene Ormandy with fellow guest the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. She then spent the next three years performing in concerts and recitals throughout the United States. She also sang at the Academy of Music for her professional opera debut on 28 November 1944; portraying the role of Brangäne in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" for an out of town engagement of New York's Metropolitan Opera. She repeated that role for her first appearance on the New York stage at the Metropolitan Opera House on the following 14 December.
Tristan und Isolde
The next production of "Tristan" was in Weimar in 1874. Wagner himself supervised another production of "Tristan" in Berlin in March 1876, but the opera was only performed in his own theatre at the Bayreuth Festival after his death; Cosima Wagner, his widow, oversaw this in 1886, a production that was widely acclaimed.
Liebe und Eifersucht
The opera was not performed in Hoffmann's lifetime. It was first published by Schott in 1999. and premiered at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele on 27 July 2008, at the Forum am Schlosspark in Ludwigsburg, in a coproduction with the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, where it was first performed on 27 September that year. Michael Hofstetter, who staged a series of revivals of rarely played operas, conducted the Ludwigsburg Festival orchestra and singers from the Gärtnerplatztheater in performances and a recording. The first production in Switzerland was mounted in Zurich in 2016 by the Free Opera Company, with dialogues in more modern German and a reduced orchestra, conducted by Emmanuel Siffert.
Ellen Gulbranson
Gulbranson made her operatic debut in 1889 as Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida" in Stockholm, and sang the Wagnerian roles of Brünnhilde and Ortrud there in 1898. She went on to excel in portraying these heroines—as well as succeeding in the parts of Kundry in "Parsifal" and Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde".
Ticho Parly
In the summer of 1968 he made his debut at Bayerische Staatsoper in "Tristan und Isolde", but the conductor, Joseph Keilberth, died conducting the second act and the performance was cancelled.
Intrigue and Love
Schiller began the play in 1782. It originally had the working title "Luise Millerin", which was changed to "Kabale und Liebe" on the suggestion of the actor August Wilhelm Iffland. It was first performed on 13 April 1784 at the Schauspiel Frankfurt in Frankfurt, and then two days later on 15 April 1784 in the National Theatre in Mannheim in Schiller's presence. The play was a massive success, running in Berlin, and banned in Stuttgart. It appeared in print in 1784 in Mannheim. It was performed at the Donmar Warehouse theatre, London, in 2011. In 2018, the play was adapted by Russia's Maly Drama Theatre and performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Bayreuth Festival
Around this time (1955), in order to broaden its audience, the whole Bayreuth Festival company conducted performances in Paris and Barcelona, performing "Parsifal", "Die Walküre" and "Tristan und Isolde".
Ariadne auf Naxos
The opera-and-play version was produced in Zürich on 5 December 1912 and Prague on 7 December 1912. The Munich premiere followed on 30 January 1913 in the old Residenztheater, a venue which was inferior for the presentation of opera, both acoustically and due to lack of space for the musicians. Hofmannsthal overruled the conductor Bruno Walter's preference for the Hofoper, on the grounds that the smaller theatre was more suitable for a work of this kind. The cast included the American Maude Fay as Ariadne, Otto Wolf as Bacchus, and Hermine Bosetti as Zerbinetta.
Strauss, being a native son, had a close association with Munich and was held in high regard, but had to miss the performance as he was on a concert tour in Russia. The audience openly expressed its disapproval of the piece by hissing after the first act. For the succeeding performances, Walter introduced cuts and moved the production to the Hoftheater, and the attendance began to improve. The 1912 version was also produced in Berlin beginning on 27 February 1913 and in Amsterdam in 1914.
Cornwall
Thomas Hardy's drama "The Queen of Cornwall" (1923) is a version of the Tristan story; the second act of Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" takes place in Cornwall, as do Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas "The Pirates of Penzance" and "Ruddigore".
Jonas Kaufmann
In 2018, Kaufmann made his debut as Tristan in concert performances of the second act of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde".
Tristan und Isolde
"Tristan und Isolde" has a long recorded history and most of the major Wagner conductors since the end of the First World War have had their interpretations captured on disc. The limitations of recording technology meant that until the 1930s it was difficult to record the entire opera, however recordings of excerpts or single acts exist going back to 1901, when excerpts of Tristan were captured on the Mapleson Cylinders recorded during performances at the Metropolitan Opera.
Souvenirs de Munich
Chabrier’s interest in Wagner dated from 1862, when as a study exercise he copied out the score of "Tannhäuser". In early 1880 he requested time off from his ministry job to visit Munich that March with Duparc and other friends to go to a performance of "Tristan und Isolde" as it could only be seen there. The experience was a musical revelation for Chabrier. Chabrier, as assistant to Charles Lamoureux, helped in the rehearsals for the concert performances in Paris of Act I (1884) and Act II (1885) of "Tristan und Isolde".
Tristan und Isolde
Wagner wrote of his preoccupations with Schopenhauer and "Tristan" in a letter to Franz Liszt (December 16, 1854): Never in my life having enjoyed the true happiness of love I shall erect a memorial to this loveliest of all dreams in which, from the first to the last, love shall, for once, find utter repletion. I have devised in my mind a "Tristan und Isolde", the simplest, yet most full-blooded musical conception imaginable, and with the ‘black flag’ that waves at the end I shall cover myself over – to die.
Torvaldo e Dorliska
"Torvaldo and Dorliska" was first performed at the Teatro Valle, Rome, on 26 December 1815. It remained in the repertory and appeared in several Italian cities including Venice for the next twenty five years, though it was never a great critical success. While there were no productions staged in London nor New York, it was staged in ten European cities in the ten years after its Rome premiere.
Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld
In 1862, Schnorr and his wife met Wagner himself in Biebrich near Wiesbaden; Wagner asked them to sing passages from his new opera, "Tristan und Isolde", while he accompanied them at the piano. Apparently, the composer was impressed by the results.
An attempt to stage the yet-to-be-performed opera in Vienna failed after over 70 rehearsals, not least because the resident tenor was unable to master the taxing role of Tristan. It was at Wagner's own request that Schnorr von Carolsfeld and his wife were then cast as Tristan and Isolde, King Ludwig having sponsored a renewed attempt to mount the opera.
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
In 1962, Ponnelle directed his first production of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" in Düsseldorf. His production of that opera at the Bayreuth Festival in 1981 was widely praised as one of the most aesthetically beautiful in its history.
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde ("Tristan and Isolde", or "Tristan and Isolda", or "Tristran and Ysolt") is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance "Tristan" by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting. Wagner referred to the work not as an opera, but called it "eine Handlung" (literally "a drama", "a plot" or "an action"), which was the equivalent of the term used by the Spanish playwright Calderón for his dramas.
Tristan und Isolde
The re-discovery of medieval Germanic poetry, including Gottfried von Strassburg's version of Tristan, the "Nibelungenlied" and Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival", left a large impact on the German Romantic movements during the mid-19th century. The story of Tristan and Isolde is a quintessential romance of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Several versions of the story exist, the earliest dating to the middle of the 12th century. Gottfried's version, part of the "courtly" branch of the legend, had a huge influence on later German literature.
Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz)
It was first performed in three concerts conducted by Berlioz at the Paris Conservatoire with an orchestra of 100 instruments and 101 voices on 24 November, 1 December and 15 December 1839, before capacity audiences that comprised much of the Parisian intelligentsia. Another notable audience member was Richard Wagner, who would later note the influence of the symphony on his opera "Tristan und Isolde". Reactions to the piece were quite varied, as could be expected for a radical work. However, it was widely acknowledged that Berlioz had scored a major triumph in these first performances; a "tour de force such as only my system of sectional rehearsals could have achieved". Berlioz comments: "The work as it was then [in 1839] was performed three times at the Conservatoire under my direction and, each time, appeared to be a genuine success. But I felt at once that much would have to be changed, and I went over it carefully and critically from every point of view." He continued to revise the work, a few instances upon the suggestions of critics, but generally by his own judgement.
Tristan und Isolde
Another composer to rework material from "Tristan" was Emmanuel Chabrier in his humorous "Souvenirs de Munich – quadrilles on themes from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde". These were augmented and orchestrated by Markus Lehmann in 1988. Leopold Stokowski made a series of purely orchestral "Symphonic Syntheses" of Wagner's operas during his time as conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, bringing to concert audiences of the 1920s and '30s music they might not otherwise have heard. He made a 'long version' of music from "Tristan and Isolde" which consisted mainly of the act 1 prelude, the from act 2 and the from act 3. A shorter version of music from the 2nd and 3rd acts was called "Love Music from "Tristan and Isolde"". He made recordings of both versions on 78s and again on LP.
Venus und Adonis
It was first performed by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich on 11 January 1997 (Chōki 1997, 18). The American première was at the Santa Fe Opera in August 2000, and the same production was used for the Canadian première, which took place in Toronto in 2001 (Brockmeier 2003). The Japanese premiere was given in concert form in Tokyo on 11 January 2001.
Tristan &amp; Isolde (film)
"Tristan + Isolde" opened theatrically in 1,845 North American venues on January 13, 2006. In its first weekend, the film earned $6,583,135 and ranked eighth in the domestic box office. The film ended its run on March 30, having grossed $14,734,633 in the United States and Canada, and $13,313,330 internationally for a worldwide total of $28,047,963.
Tristram of Lyonesse
Tristram of Lyonesse is a long epic poem written by the British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, that recounts in grand fashion the famous medieval story of the ill-fated lovers Tristan and Isolde (Tristram and Iseult in Swinburne's version). It was first published in 1882 by Chatto and Windus, in a volume entitled "Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems". Swinburne himself considered "Tristram of Lyonesse" to be the crowning achievement of his poetic career (quoted by Harrison, p. 96). William Morris (referring to this poem) commented that Swinburne's work 'always seemed to me to be founded on literature, not on nature'.
Lisa Gasteen
Recent seasons have seen Lisa Gasteen return to the Staatsoper Berlin to perform Chrysothemis, Brünnhilde ("Siegfried") in Stuttgart, Leonora ("Fidelio"), her role debut as Isolde ("Tristan und Isolde") for Opera Australia, for which she was the recipient of a Helpmann Award, Brünnhilde at the Meiningen Festival in her first complete Ring Cycle, making her Australia's first Brünnhilde for some sixty years, her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Isolde under Bernard Haitink, Chrysothemis at the Staatsoper Berlin and further performances of Brünnhilde (Siegfried) in Stuttgart.
Margaret Price
During her career, Price made many recordings of operas and of lieder. One of her most famous recordings is the Isolde in Carlos Kleiber's complete recording of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", a role she never sang on stage. She was a "Kammersängerin" of the Bavarian State Opera.
Karl Böhm
In 1933 Böhm conducted in Vienna for the first time, in "Tristan and Isolde" by Wagner. He succeeded Fritz Busch, who had gone into exile, as head of Dresden's Semper Opera in 1934, a position he held until 1942. This was an important period for him, in which he conducted the first performances of works by Richard Strauss: "Die schweigsame Frau" (1935) and "Daphne" (1938), which is dedicated to him. He also conducted the first performances of "Romeo und Julia" (1940) and "Die Zauberinsel" (1942) by Heinrich Sutermeister, and Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 2 (1943).
Dezső Ernster
After World War II ended, Ernster appeared in Basel and at New York's Metropolitan Opera where he made his debut on 20 November 1946 as King Marke in "Tristan und Isolde". He went on to sing 175 performances with company between 1946 and 1963. His last performance at the Met was the Grand Inquisitor in "Don Carlo" During his career Ernster also sang with the San Francisco Opera, the Vienna State Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He returned to Europe in 1963 and settled in Switzerland. His last opera performance was in Budapest in 1966 when he sang Sarastro in "Die Zauberflöte" at the Margaret Island open-air theatre.
Tristan und Isolde
Wagner uses the metaphor of Day and Night in the second act to designate the realms inhabited by Tristan and Isolde. The world of Day is one in which the lovers are bound by the dictates of King Marke's court and in which the lovers must smother their mutual love and pretend as if they do not care for each other: it is a realm of falsehood and unreality. Under the dictates of the realm of Day, Tristan was forced to remove Isolde from Ireland and to marry her to his Uncle Marke – actions against Tristan's secret desires. The realm of Night, in contrast, is the representation of intrinsic reality, in which the lovers can be together and their desires can be openly expressed and reach fulfilment: it is the realm of oneness, truth and reality and can only be achieved fully upon the deaths of the lovers. The realm of Night, therefore, becomes also the realm of death: the only world in which Tristan and Isolde can be as one forever, and it is this realm that Tristan speaks of at the end of act 2 ("Dem Land das Tristan meint, der Sonne Licht nicht scheint"). In act 3, Tristan rages against the daylight and frequently cries out for release from his desires (Sehnen). In this way, Wagner implicitly equates the realm of Day with Schopenhauer's concept of Phenomenon and the realm of Night with Schopenhauer's concept of Noumenon. While none of this is explicitly stated in the libretto, Tristan's comments on Day and Night in acts 2 and 3, as well as musical allusions to "Tristan" in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" and "Parsifal" make it very clear that this was, in fact, Wagner's intention.
Gabriele Schnaut
In private study with in East Berlin she developed to a dramatic soprano. In 1985 she sang the title role of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" at the Theater Dortmund. In 1994 she appeared at La Scala in the title role of "Elektra" by Richard Strauss and as Brünnhilde in "Die Walküre". In this role she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1996. She performed the part such as Kundry in "Parsifal" at the Wiener Staatsoper from 1996. In Hamburg she sang both the dyer's wife and the nurse in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" by Richard Strauss. In 1992 she appeared on the occasion of the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, both as Venus in Wagner's "Tannhäuser" in a Hamburg production staged by Harry Kupfer, and in the part of "Waldvogel" in Arnold Schönberg's "Gurre-Lieder". She performed the title roles of "Tosca" and "Turandot", recorded on DVD at the Salzburg Festival in 2002.
Virginia Naumann-Gungl
She was then hired in Berlin with a monthly salary of 200 marks in 1872 where she started in "The Magic Flute" then at the Cologne Opera (1872-1874), the Mecklenburg State Theatre (1874-1875) the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt (1875-1880). She sang at the Theater Bremen (1880-1882), the Staatstheater Kassel (1882-1885) where she worked with Gustav Mahler in 1882 and the Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar (1885-1891). There, she bid farewell to the stage in 1892 as Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde".
Tristan und Isolde
Wagner wrote a concert ending for the act 2 Love Duet for a planned 1862 concert performance that did not eventuate. The music was lost until 1950, then passed into private hands, before coming to the attention of Daniel Barenboim, who passed it on to Sir Antonio Pappano. The first recording of the Love Duet with the concert ending was made in 2000, with Plácido Domingo, Deborah Voigt and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under Pappano.
Tristan und Isolde
Isolde, promised to King Marke in marriage, and her handmaid, Brangäne, are quartered aboard Tristan's ship being transported to the king's lands in Cornwall. The opera opens with the voice of a young sailor singing of a "wild Irish maid", ("Westwärts schweift der Blick") which Isolde construes to be a mocking reference to herself. In a furious outburst, she wishes the seas to rise up and sink the ship, killing herself and all on board ("Erwache mir wieder, kühne Gewalt"). Her scorn and rage are directed particularly at Tristan, the knight responsible for taking her to Marke, and Isolde sends Brangäne to command Tristan to appear before her ("Befehlen liess' dem Eigenholde"). Tristan, however, refuses Brangäne's request, claiming that his place is at the helm. His henchman, Kurwenal, answers more brusquely, saying that Isolde is in no position to command Tristan and reminds Brangäne that Isolde's previous fiancé, Morold, was killed by Tristan ("Herr Morold zog zu Meere her").
Alfonso und Estrella
Apart from the overture in the 1823 "Rosamunde" production, the orchestral version of the opera was not staged in Schubert's lifetime. Opera houses in Vienna, Berlin, Dresden and Graz had refused it. The opera received its premiere performance in Weimar on 24 June 1854, conducted by Franz Liszt. Liszt had published an essay on the opera in advance of the first Weimar performance, and also had made cuts to the score for the production. Subsequent productions in the 1880s were in Karlsruhe, Vienna and Berlin. The first UK stage premiere was at Reading University Opera on 22 February 1977. The opera did not receive a complete, uncut performance; even the realisations in Graz (1991) and Vienna (1997, conducted by Harnoncourt) had been shortened.
Fire and Sword
Fire and Sword ("Feuer und Schwert – Die Legende von Tristan und Isolde") is a 1982 German romance/adventure film, directed by . It is based on the legend of Tristan and Iseult.
Eva von der Osten
Von der Osten’s career led to guest appearances in many of Europe’s leading opera houses. From 1923 to 1924, she found great success in the female roles of Richard Wagner—particularly that of Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde"—while touring with director Leo Blech’s “German Opera Company” in North America. When she retired in 1927 after a 25-year career, Von der Osten had made over 2500 operatic appearances.
Malvina Garrigues
After conducting 70 rehearsals of his "Tristan und Isolde" in Vienna and still finding the singers wanting, Richard Wagner turned to Malvina and Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld to create the roles. The premiere was set for 15 May 1865 in Munich, but had to be postponed to 10 June owing to Malvina's hoarseness.
René Kollo
On video, two performances of his Tristan can be found: a 1983 production staged at the Bayreuth Festival by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (with Johanna Meier as Isolde) and a 1993 production from Berlin, directed by Götz Friedrich (with Dame Gwyneth Jones as the Irish princess).
Tristan und Isolde
"Tristan und Isolde" is scored for the following instruments:
Sebastian Feiersinger
During the 1958–59 season he made his debut at both the San Francisco Opera in the title role of "Tannhäuser", and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as Walther in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", to considerable acclaim, and in 1963 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Tristan in "Tristan und Isolde".
Nomeda Kazlaus
Her leading roles repertoire includes Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (Lithuanian National Philharmonic); Brunnhilde in Wagner’s Die Walkure (First Lithuanian Brunnhilde, 20 premières - Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna, Italy; Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Lithuanian National Opera Theatre); Leonore in L.van Beethoven’s Fidelio (Lithuanian National Opera Theatre); Elisabetta in Don Carlo (Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia); Anne Boleyn in Henry VII by C.Saint-Saens (sang with Montserrat Caballe and Simon Estes, Grand Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain); Desdemona in Otello (sang with Ian Storey, Pergola Opera Festival, Wroclaw, Poland); Sieglinde (cover) in Die Walkure (conductor Valery Gergiev, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia); Ortlinde in Die Walkure (conductor Valery Gergiev, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia); Marina Mnishek in Boris Godunov (Kazan Opera and Ballet Theatre, Russia); Carmen in Carmen (Kosice Opera Theatre, Slovakia); Eboli in Don Carlo (Lithuanian Lithuanian National Opera Theatre); Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino (First Lithuanian Preziosilla, sang with Sergej Larin, Lithuanian National Philharmonic) etc.
Therese Vogl
Therese and Heinrich Vogl were among the first performers to play the title parts in "Tristan und Isolde", being highly regarded in those roles. She was also the first performer to play the role of Brünnhilde in the UK — at a performance of Ring cycle staged at London's Her Majesty's Theatre, with Anton Seidl conducting and her spouse singing Loge and Siegfried.
Tristan und Isolde
Following the war, another classic recording is the 1952 performance at the Bayreuth Festival with Martha Mödl and Ramón Vinay under Herbert von Karajan, which is noted for its strong, vivid characterizations and is now available as a live recording. In the 1960s, the soprano Birgit Nilsson was considered the major Isolde interpreter, and she was often partnered with the Tristan of Wolfgang Windgassen. Their performance at Bayreuth in 1966 under the baton of Karl Böhm was captured by Deutsche Grammophon – a performance often hailed as one of the best "Tristan" recordings.
Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance story, retold in numerous sources with as many variations since the 12th century. The story is a tragedy about the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan (Tristram) and the Irish princess Iseult (Isolde, Yseult, etc.). The narrative predates and most likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, and has had a substantial impact on Western art and literature. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall plot structure remains much the same.
Death and Transfiguration
Strauss conducted the premiere on 21 June 1890 at the Eisenach Festival (on the same program with the premiere of his "Burleske in D minor" for piano and orchestra). He also conducted this work for his first appearance in England, at the Wagner Concert with the Philharmonic Society on 15 June 1897 at the Queen's Hall in London.
Tristan und Isolde
Wagner was forced to abandon his position as conductor of the Dresden Opera in 1849, as there was a warrant posted for his arrest for his participation in the unsuccessful May Revolution. He left his wife, Minna, in Dresden, and fled to Zürich. There, in 1852, he met the wealthy silk trader Otto Wesendonck. Wesendonck became a supporter of Wagner and bankrolled the composer for several years. Wesendonck's wife, Mathilde, became enamoured of the composer. Though Wagner was working on his epic "Der Ring des Nibelungen", he found himself intrigued by the legend of Tristan and Isolde.
Otello (Rossini)
The first performance took place at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples on 4 December 1816. It was first performed in Paris on 5 June 1821 at the Théâtre Italien (with Manuel Garcia as Otello and Giuditta Pasta as Desdemona), in London on 16 May 1822 at the King's Theatre, and in New York on 7 February 1826 at the Park Theatre.
Iréne Theorin
Theorin performed at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen in 2004, at the New National Theatre Tokyo in 2005 and performed the role of Brünnhilde on tour with Staatstheater Nürnberg at the Beijing Music Festival in the same year, in Richard Wagner's first-ever Ring Cycle in China. The cycle was produced by Stephen Lawless and the performances were conducted by Philippe Auguin. She performed as Helmwige in the "Ride of the Valkyries" conducted by Antonio Pappano in the 2005 Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall. During the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, Theorin performed the title role of Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde" and in 2009 gave guest performances at the Washington National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.