Customer Reviews

Wagner: Tristan Und Isolde

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

A midprice reissue of the 2005 headliner, this set is still a treasure trove. It's not only Placido Domingo's long-awaited crack at a role he'd been approaching and avoiding for decades, it's an original, valid, long overdue, and genuinely moving reinterpretation of this disturbing masterwork.

What do I mean? Well, as the admired British critic John Steane once wrote, Wagner himself "is said to have constantly urged his interpreters to sing in the Italian manner." And what does this manner entail? Steane again: "smoothness of line, beauty of tone, and elegance of technical accomplishment." Handed the reins by EMI, Covent Garden music director Antonio Pappano has, at long last, set about giving us nothing less than bel canto Wagner.

You hear it from the outset of the Act I prelude -- the strings are warm and burnished, spin a continuous singing line, crescendo in arcs from the brink of inaudibility, then taper back into silence on phrase endings. And when the young sailor (Rolando Villazon in luminous voice) sings his love ditty, similar principles apply: long-breathed legato, mastery of a wide dynamic range (including echo effects and well-supported soft singing), and eager articulation of the text.

Clearly this is official directorial policy, because much the same can be said of every cast member here. Mihoko Fujimura's lyric mezzo traces Brangaene's lines with unusual delicacy and variety, perfectly in tune, finely focused, floating her high notes ("Welcher Wahn!" in I iii is sweetly nurturing, the Watch in II ii marvelously ethereal). As for Isolde, here the set serves instant notice that it isn't a Domingo ego trip but a whole-souled effort to do the work justice. Nina Stemme hasn't Fujimura's floated high notes (she sustains her pianissimo F sharp at the close of "Mild und leise" by discreetly widening the vibrato), but she has everything else: imaginative phrasing, gleaming tone, on-the-dot tuning, steady emission, well-knit scale, soaring top, melting legato ("Ich bin's, ich bins" in III ii is heartrending). Within seconds of her first entrance it's clear she's the real thing: she piles hair-raisingly into "Hoert meinen Willen" and you realize she's as accomplished an Isolde as we've had since the seventies.

Our two low-voiced leads aren't on this level but still have plenty to offer. Olaf Baer's lovely baritone is undersized and thin on the bottom for the rambunctious Kurwenal, but he really sells his taunting ballad and is sensitive and affecting throughout Act III. As for Rene Pape, his mellifluous basso cantate is choice casting for King Marke, though his forte top notes are chancier than they were on the Met DVD. But with Pappano's encouragement, his line readings are more probing and he manages a marvel of hushed poignancy at "Da kinderlos." Plus we sense the conductor's fine Italian hand even with the bit players: they all display this same balance of smooth legato and pointed articulation of the words -- e.g., the intimate delivery and silver sound of Ian Bostridge's shepherd, or Jared Holt's split-second ability to make a fearsome figure of Melot through ringing tone, energetic phrasing, and a telling subito piano at "ob ich mein Haupt."

And now the set's reason for being. There's no percentage in quibbling over Domingo's Tristan -- the voice is in excellent working order -- or in chiding him for not tackling the part onstage -- tenors who do seem not to enjoy long careers (Hofmann, Thomas, Jerusalem, Kollo, even Windgassen; Melchior doesn't count because he sang a drastically abridged and simplified version). But in the studio the role's characteristic high notes (A flat, A) aren't a problem, Domingo's bronze timbre aptly suggests Tristan the warrior, his soft singing is firmly supported and never crooned or declaimed (unlike the maverick Vickers), and he partners Stemme gallantly (in the duet passages of "O sink hernieder," they pitch the tricky intervals with breathtaking ease and accuracy). His could well be the most thoroughly SUNG Tristan in Wagner history -- yet, like the rest of the company, he's also alert to verbal and theatrical values, sardonically relishing the consonants at "seines flackernden Lichtes fluechtige Blitze," almost spooky at "Dem Land, das Tristan meint," downright bloodcurdling during his curse on the "furchtbarer Trank." Again, there's no percentage in quibbling -- this Tristan is intelligent, poetic, emotionally open, vocally qualified, musically immaculate, and desperately needed. In short, it's a genuinely significant piece of work and a fitting capstone to an extraordinary career.

As suggested, the Covent Garden orchestra is another eloquent factor. First violins come from your left speaker, seconds from your right, instantly clarifying the polyphony. Tempos are fleet yet cleanly executed, so nothing seems rushed. And in a crunch this band has no problem exchanging bel canto lyricism for crushing power: they're thrilling in the runup to Tristan's entrance in II ii, gut-wrenching with the famous discord that interrupts "O ew'ge Nacht."

The stereo sonics are warm, airy, and wide-ranging, locating events with exceptional variety and specificity between the two speakers.

So how does this new set stack up against the competition? Remarkably, I'd say. Despite monaural sound and variable vocalism, the 1952 Furtwaengler set remains a classic, with the 1966 Boehm another standard recommendation and the 1982 Kleiber a more recent favorite -- but for today's consumers, Pappano's is the most vibrantly recorded, appealingly sung, and immediately communicative performance available in stereo.

Includes a bonus disk with libretto and translation. As before, fervently recommended.

I am a fairly new Wagnerian. When I was searching for my first Tristan recording several years ago, I followed conventional wisdom to purchase the classic 1952 Furtwängler/Flagstad set, hailed by many as the absolute pinnacle of recorded Wagnerian musicianship. Unfortunately, I just didn't get it. My inexperienced ears couldn't (and to a large extent still can't) get past the poor sound quality, and the work remained an enigma.

I went out on a limb and bought this recording--and the pieces suddenly fell into place.

My "breakthrough" was due in no small part to Placido Domingo's Tristan. Yes, Domingo is an unconventional Wagnerian and nearing the end of a very long career. However, the sheer beauty of his voice and interpretation is to my ears unique among Wagner recordings. He brings his acclaimed dramatic nuance to the third act especially, for a final half hour that is almost horrifyingly gripping.
Nina Stemme's Isolde is elegant, rich, and untiring. Catch her live if you can--she is a formidable actress in the theater.
Further, the sound is warm and full, augmented by Pappano's detailed conducting. Now I wish I had a better speakers to do justice to it!
All in all, this is the recording I would most quickly recommend to newcomers to the work, both for the excellent sound quality and for the sympathetic performances of Stemme and Domingo.

I just bought this performance out of curiosity and have listened to it twice, and then went back to "sniff" long time favorites I've owned for years, i.e. Furtwangler/Flagstad/Suthaus, Bohm/Windgassen/Nilsson, and Karajan/Vickers/Dernesch. My reactions are that it is excellent but not all of a piece. I give it four stars, as I think it's not overall quite up to the competition.

It is incredible that Domingo sounds so youthful in his 60s in this set. His voice sounds beautiful and, at least in the studio, he sings the role very well. His manner of singing is Italianate and just DIFFERENT from what I am used to with the tenors named above. So it's a struggle to adjust. As always, he is very musical and enunciates well, though his diction doesn't match the native German speakers. It's ironic that he sounds younger than any of the fellows mentioned above, despite being quite a bit older. My issue is that he doesn't have the stage experience of having sung the role frequently in the heat of battle in front of live audiences; to me his recording isn't a fully formed characterization; rather, it feels like an outstanding musician and singer reading the part. I LOVE Domingo in Don Carlo and Trovatore precisely because he delivers real, integrated characterizations.

Nina Stemme as Isolde has a very beautiful, womanly, warm sound. It's strong on top and her high notes are excellent. She's not in the Nilsson class with the high notes, but who is? Those who dislike Nilsson because of her "metallic" timbre may like Stemme very much. I am bothered a bit by a seeming inconsistency in her sound and performance. I am not sure whether it is the miking, the effect of piecing together a performance from many takes, or something else. I hear dramatic volume and distance variations that seem not to have anything to do with what Wagner wrote. There are various places where Flagstad and Nilsson deliver long, quite seamless lines, but Stemme does not. The overall impression is less than what the first few minutes of the first act led me to expect. In spite of all this, her characterization is effective and I like her overall.

The Brangaene is young sounding. I like her. Olaf Bar as Kurwenal is not quite to my taste. It sounds like he decided to play the role as a blustering tough guy who's protecting Tristan. As a result the listener gets some snarling with the singing. Good for him to try to do something different with the role, but I'd rather hear it sung straight. Give me the young Fischer-Dieskau from the Furtwangler set anytime. Rene Papp as King Marke is very good.

The orchestra tone is quite fine and the recording is detailed, but does sound less reverberant (i.e. drier) than the three classic sets mentioned at the top. In other words, it does not measure up to the winner for sound - Bohm at Bayreuth. The sheen on the Bayreuth sound is sensational. Listen to the quiet beginning of Act 3 with Tristan and Kurwenal and the difference is blatant. There is also some strange miking here and there. For example, in the 2nd act love duet there's one spot where Stemme comes out of one speaker and Domingo out of the other as if they are far apart on the stage. These are lovers besotted with each other. Why did the engineers think it would be effective for them to be singing to each other at 20 paces, for heaven's sake?

Pappano's performance is one of the quicker Tristans, just 6 min slower than Bohm. Bohm feels like he's really pushing things in a few spots in Act 1, whereas Pappano does not feel that way. However, Bohm and especially Furtwangler feel more integrated and do much more with the long line than Pappano.

Overall, it's a worthy set but it's a second or third version once you have Furtwangler, Karajan or Bohm and would like to hear an alternative approach.