Richard Bratby

Neither Tristan nor Isolde quite convinced: Glyndebourne’s Tristan und Isolde reviewed

For a real Gesamtkunstwerk you ought to have been at Opera Holland Park's exuberant, inventive and oddly touching Pirates of Penzance

The lovers spent a lot of time standing apart: Tristan (Simon O’Neill) and Isolde (Miina-Liisa Värelä) with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Robin Ticciati. Credit: © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Bill Cooper 
issue 21 August 2021
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  • Tristan und Isolde

    Glyndebourne, until 28 August

  • The Pirates of Penzance

    Opera Holland Park

Glyndebourne is nothing if not honest. ‘In response to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions our 2021 performances of Tristan und Isolde will be presented as a concert staging, after the 2003 production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff’, says the programme, and what we get is not a full production but a compromise imposed by the peculiar circumstances of August 2021.

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