Product Details

• Actors: Richard Wagner, Ben Heppner, Jane Eaglen, Rene Pape, Hans-Joachim Ketelsen
• Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Mono)
• Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
• DVD Release Date: March 9, 2004
• Run Time: 238 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000CGV0P
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,902 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Wagner - Tristan und Isolde / Heppner, Eaglen, Pape, Dalayman, Ketelsen, Metropolitan Opera" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

WAGNER:TRISTAN UND ISOLDE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed Feelings, January 30, 2005

By 

David Cady (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wagner - Tristan und Isolde / Heppner, Eaglen, Pape, Dalayman, Ketelsen, Metropolitan Opera (DVD)

I had the great pleasure of seeing this production at the Met on a night when Eaglen was, not surprisingly, out. Subbing for her (and making her Met debut!) was a svelte, dramatic woman named Sue Patchell, who sang beautifully and acted the role superbly. Heppner, always wonderful, rose to the occassion and matched her performance note for note, moment for moment. Patchell's ovation at the end was well-deserved and even Levine paid homage to her at the curtain call. I was hoping to recreate some of the excitement of that night with this DVD; I have mixed feelings about it. First of all, I think the production itself is fantastic. What's accomplished with the use of color, light (or lack thereof) and a few geometric shapes is truly remarkable. I know I'm going to get "unhelpful" votes, but I find the opera itself exceedingly dull in places, lacking the energy and drama of Wagner at his best (i.e. the Ring Cycle or "Meistersinger"). Thank goodness for something interesting to watch as the lovers go on and on (and on...) about love. A traditional set would have simply added to the tedium, which seemed more pronounced watching at home. And I think Eaglan's a big problem. It's not her size per se, but what she does (or doesn't do) with it. Deborah Voight, Stephanie Blythe and Jessye Norman are all large women, but they carry their weight with grace and a magnificent presence. Eaglan just seems...there, awkward, lumpish; she's just not enough of an actress to carry off the emotional turmoil of the character. Neither she nor Heppner sounds their best, and there's absolutely no chemistry between them. Heppner has nothing to work off of, so seems (atypically) to phone a lot of the performance in. (He's superb at the top of Act III...when Eaglan's offstage.) In supporting roles, Katarina Dalayman and Rene Pape are both superb. For me the production gets a 5, but this performance and the opera itself get 3s.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful performance, June 8, 2004

By 

Erik Aleksander Moe "riddion" (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wagner - Tristan und Isolde / Heppner, Eaglen, Pape, Dalayman, Ketelsen, Metropolitan Opera (DVD)

I was fortunate enough to see this production in October 2003 and it was staggering. Finally there were people who could sing this extremely demanding opera really well. This DVD confirmed my initial reaction. Ben Heppner and Jane Eaglen were fantastic as the two doomed lovers.

Jane Eaglen was exeptionally good as Isolde. Sensitive and powerful. Her curse at the end of the narrative was staggering. Ben Heppner was equally great as Tristan. He is everything you could want from a great Tristan. What I like the most about this is the way they perform together, making the duet the highlight. Heppner's performance in the extremely difficult third act was also done with flying colors. He seemed like to give his all, but never got tired.

The supported cast is also really good. Katarina Dalayman is very good as Brangane and Rene Pape was his usual great self. He was a bit young for the king, but it hardly mattered when hearing his interpretation. Hans-Joachim Ketelsen was also really good as Kurwenal.

The conducting of James Levine was slow, as usual, but not in a bad way, like on his Parsifal. He manages to keep the drama moving, making his orchestra play very senstivly supporting the great leads on stage very well.

The picture is very good, but it is not 16:9. All of the new DVDs from performances from the European opera houses, like La Scala, are photographed using the high definition format. But this doesn't matter at all, being such a fantastic production.
The sound is also really exceptional with both an uncompressed PCM track in addition to a DTS track.

With this performance it is clear that great Wagnerian singing is not dead. We will never have Flagstad or Melchior again, but these artists that are performing Wagnerian operas now are definitely adding to the great library of great performers and performances of these difficult operas. I very highly recommend this totally engaging performance and declare that great Wagnerian singing is most definitely not dead.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Requires effort - but enrapturing, July 26, 2004

By 

Andrew Freborg (Stow, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wagner - Tristan und Isolde / Heppner, Eaglen, Pape, Dalayman, Ketelsen, Metropolitan Opera (DVD)

Tristan and Isolde is not light fare by any means ... Like any great masterwork the experience requires something of the mind - coalescing/processing the sound, words and visuals. Snobs asside, one of the beauties of all perfomance art is the individual imperfection and uniqueness, though I find very little "imperfect" here. I especially found myself drawn to Eaglen's Isolde - very human, real - the sparse sets and underplayed gestures, at least for me, promoted a more intense expression of the inner feeling - esp. her ending experience of love in the eternal. My favorite opera!

One small "distraction" -- I found the toy medieval soldiers and castles in Tristan's death scene somewhat silly - They seemed more of an afterthought and clashed with the overall elegant design of the staging. I think something more simple with lighting or scrims may have been better.