Organization

Bayreuther Festspiele

Conductor

Richard Walker

Daniel Barenboim

Stage director

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Set designer

Costume designer

Tenor

René Kollo

Tristan

Soprano

Johannes Meier

Isolde

Bass

Matti Salminen

King Mark

Mezzo-soprano

Hanna Schwarz

Brangaene

Baritone

Hermann Becht

Kurwenal

Robert Schunk

Melot

Helmut Pampuch

A shepherd

Others

Chor der Bayreuther Festspiele

Orchestra

Bayreuther Festspielorchester

Tristan und Isolde -  (Tristan and Isolde)

Bayreuth

Germany

From the Bayreuth Festival: "Tristan und Isolde" by Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Conductor: Daniel Barenboim - Stage director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. With René Kollo (Tristan), Johanna Meier (Isolde), Matti Salminen (King Marke), Hanna Schwarz (Brangäne), Hermann Becht (Kurwenal), Robert Schunk (Melot). In his one and only production for the Bayreuth Festival Jean-Pierre Ponnelle refused to follow the fashionable trend of seeking to update a work at all costs. His interest lay chiefly in the psychological treatment of the action, whereby the sublimated love of Tristan and Isolde becomes a nocturne of emotional and psychological depth. This was underscored by the "wondrous gold of the score" that "flowed from the orchestra pit in a luminous symphonic flow" (Süddeutsche Zeitung).

Tristan und Isolde Wagner,Richard

Public

Tristan and Isolde

Approved

On the journey from Ireland to Cornwall, in fabulous time. Tristan brings the Irish king's daughter Isolde to Cornwall on his ship. She is to marry his uncle, King Marke, to seal the peace between the two countries. Isolde once nursed Tristan back to health and has felt a strong affection for him ever since. Since this love must not exist, she decides to prepare a death potion for herself and Tristan. However, Isolde's confidant Brangäne hands them a love potion, which awakens an overwhelming passion for each other in both of them.
At Marke's castle, Isolde, now the king's wife, meets her lover again. The king and Melot surprise them both. The king is too shaken to take revenge, but Tristan allows Melot to severely wound him. His faithful friend Kurwenal takes Tristan to his father's castle in Brittany. Isolde's ship approaches, Tristan staggers towards his beloved and dies in her arms. Marke, who has learned the secret of the love potion from Brangäne, appears too late to unite the lovers. Kurwenal and Melot give each other death. Isolde follows her lover into the realm of the night.

In 1981 director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and conductor Daniel Barenboim made their debut at the Bayreuth Festival with Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"; two years later this recording of the production with Johanna Meier and René Kollo in the title roles was made.
"The Night of Love as the ideal fulfillment of an opera ... The conductor seemed to be at the height of his immense, even overwhelming, musical visualization skills, and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's direction combined extraordinary experience, deeply impressive imagery, courage and sensitivity" (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
"In his interpretation, Ponnelle does not follow the fashionable trend of updating at any price. He is concerned with a psychologically extremely finely explored penetration of the material. The enraptured love between Tristan and Isolde becomes a night piece of spiritual abysses. This is how Tristan experiences it in the last act What happened - Isolde's love death and Marke's shattering grief - only as a feverish vision of a dying person" (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung).

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