Organization

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Conductor

Juraj Valčuha

Stage director

Stage director (+2)

Graham Vick

Set designer

Set designer (+4)

Paul Brown

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+2)

Wolfgang Göbbel

Chorusmaster

Chorusmaster (+2)

Thomas Richter

Tenor (+1)

Michael Weinius

Tristan

Baritone (+3)

Leonardo Lee

Kurwenal

Tenor (+5)

Jörg Schörner

Melot

Tenor (+4)

Clemens Bieber

A shepherd

Tenor (+3)

Kieran Carrel

Voice of a young sailor

Bass-baritone (+3)

Byung Gil Kim

A steersman

Orchestra

Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Chorus

Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Soprano (+1)

Ricarda Merbeth

Isolde

Bass (+7)

Günther Groissböck

King Mark

Mezzo-soprano (+2)

Irene Roberts

Brangaene

Mezzo-soprano (+5)

Annika Schlicht

Bass (+3)

Albert Pesendorfer

Betrayal, lost honor, guilt and atonement, passionate love that transcends borders and the longing for death and oblivion – the story of Tristan and Isolde, which grew from Celtic roots into a myth over the centuries, fascinated poets, poets and musicians alike. Richard Wagner inspired her to create his “opus metaphysicum” (Friedrich Nietzsche), a work that towers above his artistic output like a monolith.

Musically highly romantic and yet at the same time crossing the threshold of modernity, Wagner lets his couple run into a hopeless dilemma with existential relentlessness right from the start. Because the love between the two is absolutely inevitable, but also absolutely impossible: Tristan, that "sad man" who caused his mother's death at birth, loves Isolde, and yet he has her as his king's bride supplied. In doing so, he commits a breach of faith, which puts this love under gloomy omens from the start and exposes him to himself as dishonourable. And Isolde is not innocent in the forbidden relationship either, as she spared Tristan, the murderer of her fiancé Morold, instead of killing him: a single look from Tristan was enough. Like a stranger she moves in her life, her familiar,

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE not only has an exceptional position within Wagner's oeuvre, but has disturbed and fascinated its listeners to this day with its uncompromising, border-crossing depiction of an obsessive, all-encompassing and determining love relationship. Writers, philosophers, psychologists have worked on it, composers and musicians have analyzed it, but without getting to the bottom of all its mysteries. The work, created after a myth, has itself become a myth. That we, its listeners and viewers, cannot settle comfortably in this myth because the story of this loving couple, although it seems to come from ancient times, is still much too close for us, is one of the many wonders of this work.

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