Customer Reviews

Wagner - Tristan und Isolde / Heppner, Eaglen, Pape, Dalayman, Ketelsen, Metropolitan Opera

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Complaints! Complaints! Tristan and Isolde was not performed at the Met for 16 years until 1999 because they couldn't even find anyone at all who could sing Tristan & Isolde 'live' on stage. In the studio, it is possible for small-voiced singers to take on Isolde & Tristan. But on stage? Impossible. That's why it took 16 years for Ben & Jane to appear. And what do they get - some ignorant person bashing their performance. Fact is Tristan & Isolde are among the 2 toughest role in the entire operatic repertoire. Jane & Ben does a magnificent job. We have been pampered too much by Nilsson's Isolde when Nilsson was in her prime. It is not really fair to compare Eaglen with Birgit Nilsson. Nilsson is very unique - there's only Birgit Nilsson & that's it. Jane is no Nilsson but she does a great job in her own way. Similarly Ben is no Jon Vickers. But he has his strengths. Stop bashing this DVD - we are lucky that the Met decided to release this - so much the richer for having yet another Tristan to look and listen to.

This roles are definitely hard to sing, and i found in heppner and eaglen two great performers. Ok, they probably are not better than Nilsson or VIckers, but...are they good? YES. Is this minimalistic production intense and persuasive? YES. I find a lot of things in this production that makes me approach to the wagnerian intention. We have to consider the whole thing together, The stage production, the lighting, the intention of the caracters. For me, all this considerations are satisfied. Heppner and Eaglen are exceptional, as well as the rest of the characters. The production is amazing, very well conceived, and surprising to see this on the MET, where the more traditional productions are usual.
This is my first Wagnerian DVD, and i highly recommend this one. If you dont need real ships or castles, but you are deep into the music, the lirics and the intensity. Is all that matter here.

This is the most perfect Tristan on record. EVERYTHING is good - Tristan, Isolde, Brangane, King Marke, The Met Opera, The Met Chorus, Levine's conducting, the sound, the production. Yes, don't even think about not buying this. At the end of the opera, everyone sat in stunned silence before erupting into wildly ecstatic applause. I've heard so much praise being lavished on this performance. Now that I've seen and heard it, I understand why. 5 stars is not enough. This is 10 star!! Rosette Quality. Record of the Year quality.

I was very disappointed with this DVD (and I'm not part of any conspiracies . . . that I know of). The singing was excellent, but everything else stunk, really stunk. E.g. acting, poor: 2d act in silhouette (and the staging in general), ridiculous (though Heppner with his nose and samuari hairdo looks like Wagner in silhouette, that was at least amusing): coughing in the audience, constant and loud (lazy sound guy?). It's as if they were trying to take as much passion out of the opera as possible without screwing up the music. Usually Levine and the Met are can't miss, but not this time.

If you have bothered to peruse the reviews on this particular DVD you may have noticed some negative postings, all giving it one star & vague reasons as to why it was given one star. They all have the same comments & if you bother to look at that particular person's other reviews, you will notice that their aren't any. At the risk of sounding consiracy-happy it seems that certain person(s) want to discredit this performance for some dark, eldritch reason known only to themselves.

I personally rather liked it, the staging maybe be modern, but not in the sense that all sorts of odds & ends are thrown in to bewilder the average person and give the director a faux sense that that they have created something 'deep' or 'relevant' to whatever view they are trying to thrust on the public. I'm not a big fan of Eaglen, but this is about the only thing I have her in that I have found enjoyable. Heppner does seem to be suffering some vocal problems since he tried tackling this role, so evidently the Tristan curse is still going strong. The other roles are well taken, with perhaps no real standouts, maybe Pape's Marke.

One of the benefits of DVD with long operas like Tristan is that each DVD holds two CDs worth of music, which makes it cheaper when the CDs are at full price. Then you get video as well!

There would be very few operas where little is gained by seeing it over just hearing, but Tristan is perhaps the prime example of that very phenomenon. Having developed the 'invisible orchestra' Wagner speculated about the idea of an 'invisible stage'. Personally I enjoy this music the most with my eyes closed, so care little whether the production is good or atrocious.

So firstly, then, the music. Levine conducts a spacious, mature reading that swells and subsides and takes your heart with it. The Met orchestra shows just how beautiful a sound it can make.

Eaglens voice as sheer sound envelops the orchestra with faultless, pulsing waves of beauty, yet she can produce edge when necessary for dramatic reasons. Heppner's heldentenor negotiates Tristan's taxing lines with attractive tone. He sings the notes with convulsing fervour in the mad scene of Act 3. Rene Pape has the most beautiful bass voice around today, and makes a haunting and handsome King Marke.

Now, the production. Given what I said before about not caring, if I were to be watching as well as hearing Tristan, this is just the kind of thing I would like. The production is largely still, spare, symbolic, and hauntingly lit, and so it doesn't distract from the music. Normally, I don't like that kind of arty-farty nonsense from directors, and prefer traditional productions. But for a drama that largely takes place in the mind, this seems to me very appropriate.

There is a bonus picture gallery of the history of Tristan and Isolde at the Met, which didn't excite me for very long, but may be of more interest if it brings back memories for you.

Sound is either PCM Stereo or DTS 5.1, so no Dolby Digital 5.1 (surprisingly, since the Fidelio has that option). Picture is 4:3. Subtitles German; English; French; Spanish and Chinese.

Yes, there may be better Isoldes, there may be better Tristans, and there may be better musical performances--not usually all on the same audio recording. But the quality Eaglen/Heppner/Levine performances, the inobtrusive yet moving sets and staging, and the excellent digital recording make this the best overall audio-visual offering around. This is certainly my immediate favorite!