It’s more than three years since there was a production of Wagner’s ultimate masterpiece, Tristan und Isolde, in the UK, and I have been looking forward eagerly to Welsh National Opera’s revival of the one they share with Scottish Opera. Yannis Kokkos, who was the original designer and director, pays tribute in the programme to the great Swiss designer Adolphe Appia, and his sets, spare, concentrating the action and suggesting a lot that isn’t to be seen on stage, are rather similar to the ones that Toscanini used in La Scala in 1923. For me, they are virtually ideal, lovely to look at and enabling the singers to move freely but ensuring that every gesture they make tells. Unfortunately, the revival director Peter Watson didn’t make much of his opportunities, so the performers behaved very much as they would on any stage with any setting. The first performance, though no disaster, felt as if it was the trial run for something that will be much more successful after about another five.
Michael Tanner
Lessons from Tristan
issue 07 October 2006
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