Product Details

• Actors: Jon Vickers, Ruth Hesse, Birgit Nilsson, Walter Berry, Marke Bengt
• Directors: Pierre Jourdan
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: German (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: May 14, 2002
• Run Time: 210 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000067IYJ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,729 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #35 in

  Movies & TV > Musicals & Performing Arts > Classical > By Composer > Wagner, Richard

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
For its 1973 production of Wagner's intense romantic tragedy Tristan und Isolde, the Theatre Antique d'Orange assembled the best cast and conductor then available, but left the engineering in less gifted hands. Despite abstract staging that Wagner would have hated and serious technical shortcomings, many Wagnerians will find the result indispensable. This is the only video Tristan we have in which Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers--both near-legendary figures and ideally suited to their roles--can be seen together. For many, that will be enough said, and they can expect many hours of enjoyment. Added attractions are the fine performance of Walter Berry and Karl Bohm's excellent conducting. But the sound is poor even by the standards of 1973, and the cameras are sometimes misdirected, the images blurred. Whether you choose it or not depends on whether you value performance over technical quality. The performance is excellent, particularly in the Liebestod and Tristan's mad scene. --Joe McLellan

Product Description
The great soprano Birgit Nilsson stars in her signature role of Isolde in this historic performance filmed live at the Theatre Antique d'Orange in France in 1973. Jon Vickers co-stars as Tristan in this famed production, which is performed under the musical direction of the legendary conductor Karl Böhm. This historic film of Wagner's monumental opera, performed by this incomparable cast, has been restored and digitally re-mastered.

Birgit Nilsson - Isolde
Jon Vickers - Tristan
Ruth Hesse - Brangaene
Walter Berry - Kurwenal
Bengt Rundgren - King Mark
Horst Laurenthal - Shepherd and Sailor
Stan Unruh - Melot
Conducted by Karl Böhm
Orchestre National de RTF
Choeurs New Philharmonia de Londres

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great singing, great acting but bad camera work, August 6, 2002

By	Erik Aleksander Moe "riddion" (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

To see Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers together on the stage is something that most people in the 60's and 70's could just dream of seeing. They didn't do many performances together, which is a shame. I bought this performance on CD from Opera d'Oro a couple of months ago and I loved it, despite the blowing wind in the background. Then I saw that the performance was available on DVD, and I was so excited that I felt I HAD to have it. I ordered it right away and yesterday I recieved it.

I played the DVDs right away and what noticed right away was the horrible camera work and sub standard sound. The sound quality was somewhat better than the CD, so the sound satisfied me. What was really frustrating was the camera not being where I wanted it to be many times. Why did it had to pan the solists on the far sides and why did it had to zoom out at couple of key moments?

But there are so much that is great about this performance. I find myself extremely fortunate to see Vickers and Nilsson performing my favourite opera. Their performances are so powerful that you can't stop looking at them. The love duet is so beautiful and their acting is exeptional, even though they don't do much on stage during the duet. Vickers' act 3 performance has to be seen to be believed. At all times he sings beautifully and excitingly while acting so wonderfully. His expressions, eyes and voice do all the acting perfectly.

Walter Berry's Kurwernal is also very good. He sings the part wonderfully and his acting is equally good. Bengt Rundgren, I thought, was very stiff as King Marke, but he sang the part with more betrayl in his voice and acting than I am used to hearing. Ruth Hesse is weak link vocally in the supporting cast, but her acting is very good. I just wish that Christa Ludwig had sang in Paris that day.

The picture quality is not good, but not bad either. It shows very little evidence to having been restored. The colors are washed out and it is quite soft. The picture and sound quality were good enough for me. I would have been satisfied with a B/W picture. To see the two greatest interpreters of this great opera in the latter half the 20th century is something that I would want to see. The sets were not so much to my liking, but so much better than the horrible production I saw on the Mehta performance on DVD with West and Meier. Even though there weren't any boat, a garden or a castle in the production, I was satisfied.

The other reviewers have said that it is too bad to buy. If you are, like me, a great fan of the opera, Vickers and Nilsson, then you wouldn't want to pass this up, despite the shortcoming of the camera work

Buy this wonderful performance if you are a die hard fan. If you aren't, you should wait for the Met DVD with Heppner and Eaglen. I am going to buy that one myself when it comes out.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Despite some technical flaws, the best Tristan on video, February 19, 2006

By	Ivy Lin (NY NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If you are looking for a Tristan video with state-of-the-art sound, a sumptuous production, and great picture quality, this is not the video for you. Although made in 1973, the sound is very poor -- the singers sound for some reason pretty distant. There are also occasional dropouts in sound. If you have trouble hearing Birgit Nilsson, you KNOW you're in trouble! I fixed this by turning up the volume on my TV. The video was also filmed live in Orange, which is an outside amphitheater. The sets therefore are extremely spare. To be precise, it's little more than a large circle stage, with two ascending staircases, and lighting effects to imply scene changes. For instance, during the first act, which takes place on a ship, the lighting is filled with blues to imply (get it?) the sea waves. The costumes are also extremely spare, without anything to suggest a princess (for Isolde) and a warrior (for Tristan). If ever a production was "minimalist" this is it. The only are where no expenses were spared were, unfortunately, the wigs. Birgit is wearing a black helmet wig, and King Marke is in a truly ridiculous wavy/curly silver wig with a matching beard.

Then why do I say this is the best Tristan on video? Simply because of the voices. Jon Vickers and Birgit Nilsson, while not perfect, are head and shoulders above the singers in any other Tristan video (including the latest, the Eaglen/Heppner video from the Metropolitan). This was 1973, and both Vickers and Nilsson were ever-so-slightly past their primes. Even so, these are impressive performances. Nilsson's voice was always bright and laser-like, and lacked the warmth of Kirsten Flagstad or Helen Traubel. Despite this, her Isolde is commanding, passionate, and she's a surprisingly good actress, especially in the first act, when Isolde is filled with uncontrollable rage. Vickers' voice is an acquired taste. Never conventionally beautiful, it has this edge to it that I know many people dislike. Nevertheless, it's one of the rare voices that could handle a role as punishing as Tristan. This is particularly evident in Act 3, when many Tristans falter completely. In the bad old days, Act 3 used to be abridged to suit the tenor (Jean de Reszke, Lauritz Melchior were two legendary Tristans that probably never sang an uncut Tristan). Walter Berry is Kurwenal and Ruth Hesse is Brangaene. Brangaene's breathtakingly beautiful "warning" in Act 2 unfortunately goes for naught when sung by the uninspiring Hesse.

Karl Bohm is the conductor. Bohm is an odd conductor -- in Mozart, he could be easygoing to the point of lugubriousness. But in Tristan, he acts like he's on speed. This Tristan is probably one of the shortest complete Tristans on record (209 minutes, when most Tristans run about 4 hours). For speed, he sacrifices much of the luxuriousness of the music (especially in Act 2) but for such a long opera that's not necessarily a bad thing. I have read the reviews and agree with all the technical complaints, but until a better Tristan and Isolde come along, this video remains essential to all lovers of this very beautiful opera.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yes, but...., June 4, 2002

By	david favrot (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Truth-in-advertising time: The sound is poor (which is surprising, since a CD recording of this performance in clear, vivid sound has long been available on a French import label), and the camera work is unsteady and amateurish, with washed-out colors. Still, this is the only known video of Nilsson and Vickers together in this opera, which they performed as a team only a handful of times (though there's a bootleg black-and-white videocassette of Nilsson in "Tristan" with Wolfgang Windgassen under Pierre Boulez). Vickers does "Tristan" excerpts in a Canadian videocassette, but with nothing like the intensity we see in this French show. Together, Vickers and Nilsson are the Tristan and Isolde of one's dreams, and even in this subpar DVD set their brilliance leaps out at you. The love duet and Tristan's third-act delirium are all you could ask for vocally. Until the Met releases its Eaglen/Heppner "Tristan" on DVD, this is the one to get, for all its flaws.