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Wagner Society in NSW Inc
Tristan und Isolde In the previous Newsletter it was lamented that there appeared to be no review other than that by Vincent Plush reported in the Newsletter of the Brisbane concert performance of Tristan und Isolde on July 30 2005 . Our assiduous member, Shirley Robertson (member No. 416) has, however, tracked down a review from the following week's Brisbane Courier Mail by James Harper (p.13). In a review entitled “Wonder Work”, Harper contends: “Whether it strikes you as emotionally and philosophically profound, or a farrago or overheated nuttiness, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is unquestionably a pivotal point in the evolution of Western art”. Of the performance he said: “Lisa Gasteen and John Teleaven…left no doubt about why they are amongst the world's foremost Wagner interpreters.” Harper also noted that, in supporting such highlevel singers, the “role of the orchestra is crucial. It is the medium for expression the characters' inner states” and “Richard Mills and the Australian Youth Orchestra rose fully to the occasion”. Again, our congratulations to the Queensland Music Festival and its Director, Lyndon Terracini. I was lucky enough to attend two other performances of Tristan und Isolde to compare with the one in Brisbane . The second was the full production in Bayreuth by Swiss Director, Christoph Marthaler and the third was also a concert performance in the Edinburgh Festival with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. The advantage of a concert performance is being able to concentrate on the musical values; with full productions one can often be distracted by the shenanigans (or, in the Bayreuth production, the general lack of them on stage). In Brisbane the cast was Cornish heldentenor John Treleaven, Lisa Gasteen, Bruce Martin as King Mark, Bernadette Cullen as Brangane and David Wakeham as Kurwenal; Barry Ryan, Melot, Jaewoo Kim a shepherd and the young sailor, and Lionel Theunissen, the helmsman, with the Australian Youth Orchestra conducted by Richard Mills. In Bayreuth on 26 August, the cast was Robert Dean Smith, Tristan, Nina Stemme, Isolde, Petra Lang, Brangane, Kwangchul Youn, König Marke, Andreas Schmidt (Hartmut Welker, by the time I saw the production), Kurwenal, Alexander Marco-Buhrmester, Melot, Clemens Bieber, Junger Seemann, Arnold Bezuye, Ein Hirt, Martin Snell, Ein Steuermann (and to be Klingsor in Wellington's performances of Parsifal ), with the Orchester and Chor der Bayreuther Festspiele, conducted by Eiji Oue and with Christoph Marthaler the director. In Edinburgh on 30 August, it was Christian Franz, Tristan, Christine Brewer, Isolde, Jane Irwin, Brangane, Juha Uusitalo, Kurnewal, John Reylea, King Mark, D'Arcy Bleiker, Melot, the Shepherd and Young Sailor, Andrew Kennedy, Steersman, Jonathon Hawkings, with Jonathon Nott, conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. Overall, the Bayreuth Dean Smith and Nina Steeme were the singing “dream team” of the year, with Treleaven and Gasteen close behind. Christian Franz probably acted Dean Smith off the stage, even though his was only a concert performance in Edinburgh , which says as much about the directorial constraints on Dean Smith as about Franz's impassioned embracing of his music stand. It must be said that Franz received no emotional or acting support from Brewer whose Isolde stared stolidly into the middle air and sat whenever she was not needed to sing. Her singing was, by far, the least accurate and stirring of the sextuplet of leads. Jane Irwin would have been a better match for Franz; her Brangane had the passion and focus lacking in Brewer and, despite clearly being in the early stages of her career, was a match for Petra Lang in Bayreuth and probably, more passionate than Bernadette Cullen in Brisbane. All three Tristans were a balm for grateful ears in Act III when singers often start to show wear and tear and start bellowing. Sometimes, as with Siegfried Jerusalem in 1997, intensity of action helps to mask a voice struggling with Wagner's impossible demands. However, Treleaven, Dean Smith and Franz had no trouble finding the stamina and the rich quality of voice that makes for a heartstoppingly memorable Act III. I have to say that Dean Smith took the cake, if only for having to sing his despair and ecstasy while either confined to an electrically-operated hospital bed or sprawled over the floor. I would happily listen to any of these heldentenors any time. As suggested above, I would not go out of my way to hear Brewer as Isolde, but I would love to hear Gasteen and Stemme again to hear how their voices develop. In Brisbane , I was surprised and pleased by the evidence of greater lyricism in Gasteen's voice than was evident to me in her performances as Brunnhilde in Adelaide . Part of the explanation, no doubt, was that, for the Brisbane performance, Gasteen was not required to throw herself around the stage as in her very physical performance in Adelaide . I hope that Gasteen's ability to soften and float her voice grows. With Stemme, there is no doubt that she has a tremendously strong and accurate instrument, wonderfully strong in the lower register, although there were comments in Bayreuth that her top notes were a bit wobbly and harsh (another reason to hear her again – to check these comments). What was not evident to me in Bayreuth was her ability, as Gasteen showed, to lighten and float the voice in those lyrically ecstatic passages in Act II. You can hear her singing this role, with Placido Domingo, on the recent EMI recording with Anthony Pappano and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden . The three King Marks, Bruce Martin, Kwangchul Youn and John Reylea each brought heartfelt passion and despair to their roles. Youn's portrayal had the advantage of some of the small gestures towards “storyline” in the Marthaler interpretation. Before his entrance, this King Mark is seen spying on his wife and her lover with binoculars from the back of the set. As he laments his friend's betrayal and upbraids him for his actions, Youn tenderly straightens his wife's twin set jacket and pearls and touched her face and hair. This small action, bespeaking great love, brought tears to my eyes on one of the few occasions this production achieved memorable passion. (For another review it was this moment: “Only for one brief moment in "Sink hernieder! Nacht der Liebe" is there a frisson of eroticism as Tristan coyly nestles his head in Isolde's lap and gently pulls off her elbow-length gloves. Apart from that, the unhappy lovers do not touch at all. In fact, their passion is depressingly destructive, leaving not only Tristan and Isolde high and dry in their inability to communicate, but also severing the ties between Brangane, King Marke, Kurwenal and Melot, who in the end are left scrabbling in autistic isolation” – Simon Morgan of the website Seen and Heard International ( www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2005/Jul-Dec05/bayreuth05.htm ). David Wakeham and Juha Uusitalo had no problem outsinging Hartmut Welker in Bayreuth who sounded increasingly as if his singing days were over, his limitations made more obvious and unforgivable in contrast with Dean Smith's and Stemme's glorious ringing tones. Hartmut Welker was no better as Telramund in Lohengrin , where one wished heartily that John Wegner could also have done this role again, as well as his marvellous singing in Schligensief's production of Parsifal . While Mills achieved wonders with the AYO in Brisbane , his lack of experience with Wagner showed in the relatively straightforward interpretation he offered. This is not to say that it was without its moments; in fact, the brass playing was on a par with the other two orchestras, a considerable achievement, given the significant role Wagner always gives the brass. In Bayreuth , Eiji Oue received mixed reviews, many finding his volume too loud and his overall approach lacking in subtlety and sensuality. However, Oue has some interesting things to say about his debut in Wagner-heaven (see below). He was the first Asian conductor to work at Bayreuth . He was also the only conductor I have witnessed being booed at Bayreuth – for his interpretative shortcomings, not his nationality! In a refreshingly direct and modest interview on the Daily Yomiuri Online website: www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/ , Oue said: “Pierre Boulez and Christian Thielemann, who were my fellow conductors at the festival, gave me a lot of advice. Mr Wagner, the general director, told me my sound was too loud and needed to be better balanced. I also learned from the outspoken reviews, especially the ones in the German papers…. It was a challenge for me, but I accepted many of the criticisms as a way to improve my performance. In the end, I was happy with my performance.” Oue has been the conductor of the Hanover North German Radio Orchestra since October 1998, which is where Wolfgang Wagner heard him conduct in January 2003, leading to his invitation to Oue to conduct Tristan at this year's performance. According to Daily Yomiuri Online, “With such celebrated singers as soprano Nina Stemme as Isolde and heldentenor Robert Dean Smith as Tristan, Oue said that he at first thought the singers would control the show, but gradually realized that he needed to bring his own style to the work.” Simon Morgan for AFP wrote: “Oue, 48, former protégé of the late Leonard Bernstein, is currently music director of both the Osaka Philharmonic and chief conductor of the North German Radio Philharmonic in Hanover .” Jonathon Nott, however, was able to bring a revelatory intensity with his interpretation of the score that was aided and abetted by the Usher Hall's wonderful acoustics and the superb musicianship of the Bambergers. I was lucky to hear them in the rest of their concert series, which included a wonderful performance of Bruckner's 9 th Symphony (only just overshadowed by Christoph Eschenbach's compellingly intense and searching performance of the 8 th with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the BBC Proms a week later!) With another perspective, Jim Pritchard , also of the website Seen and Heard International ( www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2005/Jul-Dec05/edinburgh_tristan.htm ) wrote that “At Bayreuth this year the debutant conductor, Eiji Oue went compellingly with the flow but had not yet learned what to do when the music lingers and then it all appeared to drift (he will not be returning to conduct it again next year and has been replaced by Peter Schneider). In Edinburgh it was another young man's account of the score. However, here Jonathan Nott never allowed the pace to slacken even though he tended to skim over the more reflective episodes in readiness to give those moments of supreme drama everything he and the orchestra could offer. As a result he sometimes let his musicians have their own way too much and a shift in dynamics towards the singers would have been appreciated as they were occasionally floundering against the sheer volume of exquisitely burnished tone coming from the massed ranks behind them, with some individuals in the orchestra making significant solo contributions throughout the evening particularly from amongst the woodwind. However I felt that Jonathan Nott, unlike the conductor at Bayreuth , had an emotional grip on the music that belied his experience of conducting it.” Generally, I would concur with this assessment. Now to the Bayreuth production! In an interview in the Suddeutsche Zeitung, of 25 July 2005 , just before the premiere, the stage designer, Anna Viebrock, was interviewed by Wolfgang Schrieber who wrote: “About their collaboration, Viebrock says, ‘It's typical of our work that we don't theorise too much. We go at it simply, quite intuitively.... For me 'Tristan' is a kind of obsession. I'm particularly interested in what happens between man and woman, between men and women. The whole thing is about injuries and wounds, it's an extremely sad story'." According to Schrieber, Viebrock thought it unlikely that they would produce another Wagner work together: "Christoph always says, 'Tristan' is the only Wagner work for him. The other works, with all those gods - that's not his style…”. In a review entitled “Bayreuth's Barren Tristan und Isolde ” ( Copyright © 2003 andante Corp .), Larry L. Lash lashes the director: “ According to Marthaler's paper* — there has to be a paper, you can't tell your Regietheater directors without a paper — his production contrives comparison to Samuel Beckett's Endgame, to light bulbs flaring up before they burn out, to a longing for death for want of any alternative, and the observation, "When examined under a microscope, what appears to the melancholy observer to be a lonely process of dying is in fact the collapse of countless related chemical and physical functions." (Did he lift that last one from Schlingensief's Parsifal paper?) (* A mysterious ritual in which the Director issues an explanation of his concept for the particular production – mainly for the media representatives who are clearly incapable of “getting it” and hence need a crib! I have never seen one. If any members have copies of ones from Bayreuth , the Editor would love to see it – perhaps with a view to informing our readers.) “What Marthaler actually delivers is a whole lot of nothing. By comparison, one of Robert Wilson's slow-motion extravaganzas seems like a night with the Rockettes. I have seen more character development in concert performances with the singers' heads buried in their scores. I have even seen more character development in a flea circus.” While this is over-statement for effect, it is not without much truth – especially for the minor characters. However, I was convinced that Tristan and Isolde do develop within the strictures imposed by Marthaler. Lash also whips Viebrock, “Isolde and Brangane are frumps in dresses and pleated skirts which could be from the 1940s or 1950s. Isolde is enveloped in a 1920s wrap at the end of Act I and appears in slacks and a trench coat in Act III. Tristan wears a blue blazer and club tie, Kurwenal a kilt, Melot a World War I uniform and King Marke something forgettable and gray”. These comments are both accurate, but, I think, also contain part of the answer to what is happening on stage.
“Neither warnings nor punishment need be meted out to Robert Dean Smith. His is a well-thought-out career based around a sizeable Heldentenor of uncommon sweetness, inherent lyricism, and a fresh, metallic quality. Smith's Tristan was beautifully paced, and that alone is no small feat. By the time he reached Tristan's "mad scene," he shifted gears into a white-hot intensity, nailing not only the delirium of the scene, but every note smack on pitch (something even Jon Vickers could rarely achieve). I wished this, the longest solo sequence in the opera, could have gone on longer.” However, Lash saves his final flagellation for Marthaler: “What can be one of the most passionate and moving love stories of all time seemed more a sterile, static trifle about some people who are mildly cheesed off”. Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich entitled his review “The unspectacular failure of ‘Tristan and Isolde'" at Bayreuth (on the website Seen and Heard International www.signandsight.com/features/283.html , but originally in German in the “Frankfurter Rundschau” on July 27, 2005) and contends the production team “presented the key and crowning work of the night-blue music of the Romantic period in a decidedly sober state. It was sobering but not annoying: an unspectacular disappointment. The idea was interesting: putting the opera of the most extreme rebellions and exaltations together with the directorial master of abysmally shrewd and pensive staidness. What resulted was the insight that a good piece plus a good director does not necessary equal an extraordinary performance if those 'goods' are of a controversial nature, as was the case here. Christoph Mathaler's "Tristan and Isolde" didn't really send up sparks”. Jungheinrich goes on to say: “The middle act, flooded with all of Eros' demons, awakened more of Marthaler's parodying life spirit. While waiting for Tristan, the fatigued Isolde keeps nodding off. Then, in a 1950s cocktail dress, looking like Doris Day as a college girl, she meets up with a stuffed Jerry Lewis, in the role of a shy young bank branch director on a first date. Things get erotically charged when Isolde slowly peels the glove off her hand and sticks it in her mouth, where the ecstatic Tristan grabs at it. But of course the delirium is just an adolescent little breeze…”. My tuppence-worth on what Marthaler might have been trying to achieve is based on some of the aspects already mentioned: the king with the binoculars (and a team of spies flitting around the back of the stage during the early part of Act II), the 1940s to 1950/60s costumes, the restrained (if not straitjacketed) behaviour, and the bare if not sterile settings. It seemed to me that Marthaler was working with the proposition: What would the most impassioned music drama in the Western canon look like if re-set in one of the periods of Western culture conventionally taken to be the most emotionally constipated (the 1940s and 1950s), within the prevailing bourgeois attitudes to marriage and public expression of emotion. To me it seemed that Marthaler's “storyline” (to use Robert Graham's useful term – see issue No 99 for his review of the Adelaide Ring Cycle) was to treat Tristan and Isolde and Mark's inter-relationship as a middle-class divorce film, with possible references to films such as Belle de Jour . Rather than the “adolescent little breeze” that Jungheinrich mentions, the production seemed to me to be an expression of a sadly emotionally repressed, even atrophied, society in which marriage was an artificial construct that inevitably leads to disaster – usually without any hint of the ecstatic connection that Tristan and Isolde momentarily and, probably, frustratingly experience in their encounter. It is probably indicative of a Freudian comment from Marthaler about the neurotic nature of the society of this period and the lack of emotional maturity in the people it produces, that Isolde's final act is to curl up in the foetal position on Tristan's bed (he is now sprawled out on the floor) and pull up the sheets over her head – although that could also be a symbolic statement of her entry into the world of darkness to meet Tristan. There was little in Marthaler's production that made it significantly more memorable and worth watching than the two concert performances where one could at least concentrate on the beauty of the orchestral tone and the expressive power of the singers' voices and faces, without being distracted by strange behaviour on stage and puzzling stage pictures. [ Editor October 2005 ] Back to Society Home Page
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