13895 Wagner News 174 - Wagner Society of England

WELSH NATIONAL OPERA TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Millennium Centre, 19th May 2012
Bill Bliss
I went to Cardiff thinking I was going to see a somewhat routine revival of the Kokkos
production that I had first seen at its opening nearly twenty years earlier with the
acclaimed performances of Anne Evans and Jeffrey Lawton.
My expectations were not raised by the productions I have seen since; for example
the Müller staging in Bayreuth: great singing, particularly from Waltraud Meier but
ruined by the concrete set and the total absence of interaction between the two lovers.
They never touched and barely acknowledged each other. Then there was the Wernicke
production at Covent Garden where the stage was divided into red and blue boxes, the
singing and acting forgettable but the whole in part redeemed by Haitink’s conducting.
Glyndebourne was an improvement but the superb Nina Stemme was inadequately
partnered by Robert Gambill and the Lehnoff production. There was also a near
compelling concert performance at the RFH in 1993 made memorable by Ian Bostridge
as the young sailor.
So the Kokkos revival did not greatly entice me, though the Millennium Centre at
Cardiff Bay is always worth the round trip for me of 200 miles (the best opera venue in
the UK?). I had never heard of Anne Petersen (sorry), but what a looker and can she sing
and act .We had a stand in for Tristan, as Jay Hunter Morris had been snapped up by the
Met for their Ring. Ben Heppner seemed to be conserving his voice early on but he was
a fine match for Isolde in Act II where we had a proper, lingering kiss at the climax.
Maybe this fortified him for Act III where he was triumphant (not quite the right word for
a man in his death throes but I hope you know what I mean) and utterly believable. Philip
Joll may be a bit fluffy as Kurwenal but I like his presence and view him as an old friend
from his days as Wotan in the 1980s. Susan Bickley seems to have made the role of
Brangäne her own and was a fine foil for Isolde but did they have to dress almost
identically? My only other quibble about the stage scene was the synchronous fall to the
ground of Tristan and Isolde after drinking the love potion: almost bathetic, adding
nothing to the drama and of course being totally unscripted.
It is rare to go to this opera and hear a Tristan and an Isolde both out of the top
drawer but it was my privilege so to do at Cardiff. The liebestod was simple,
overwhelming and unforgettable; as great as Linda Esther Gray in 1981 and I never
thought I would say that.
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