Abstract and Symbolic in Music and Vision December 1

Abstract and Symbolic 'Tristan und Isolde' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma enthralls GIUSEPPE PENNISI On 27 November 2016, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma inaugurated the 2016-17 season with a new production of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde — a joint venture with Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris (where it had its debut last May) and with De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam (where it will be staged soon). The theater was full, and several politicians, business and media people were in the audience. After the opera, there was a gala dinner for some two hundred guests in the Opera Museum of Costumes. In brief, conductor Daniele Gatti raised his baton at 4.30pm; after the performance, the applauses and accolades terminated at 10.30pm and the gala dinner finished well after midnight. This is a clear indication that Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is now competing with La Scala Milan in terms of plush and elegance for inaugurating its opera season. Of course, ladies wore soirée attire and gentlemen black ties. I was in the orchestra seats. Rachel Nicholls as Isolde and Andreas Schager as Tristan in Act I of Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution The production is the outcome of very close work between conductor Daniele Gatti and director Pierre Audi and his creative team — Willem Bruls for dramaturgy, Christof Hetzer for sets and costumes, Jean Kalman for lighting and Anna Bertsch for video. It is a highly abstract and symbolic production: the costumes, rather poor, are timeless, the sets just suggestions with fragments of Isolde's ship in the first act, a garden without flowers but with whales bones and teeth in the second act, and rocks in the third. However, the sea is always present at the back of the stage and, in the third act, a mummy set on a scaffold — a frequent African symbol — shows the thrust for real love only after death. Indeed, during the 'action' in three acts (as Wagner called it), the two lovers touch each other only for a few seconds. The abstraction is fascinating and fully in tune with Gatti's expanded tempos. The Teatro dell'Opera orchestra was up to the challenge, especially some soloists, for example the clarinet. In short, it provided the right atmosphere and colors for the performance. Andreas Schager as Tristan and Rachel Nicholls as Isolde in Act II of Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution Tristan und Isolde is also an opera with strenuous and impervious singing roles. Andreas Schager is the perfect Tristan of our times. He has a clear timbre, excellent acute, gorgeous phrasing and incredible stamina; after the long second act duet, he sang the forty-five-minute third act monologue without even a sign of being tired. Some critics say they prefer a Tristan with a darker voice, like a bari-tenor. Ludwig Schnorr con Carolsfeld, the first protagonist who prepared the opera under Wagner's own guidance in Munich in 1865, was a lyric tenor spinto expert in Verdi roles. Also, Wolfgang Windgassen was a lyric tenor — I heard him at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1959 (with Birgit Nilsson as Isolde and Heinz Wallberg in the pit). A scene from Act III of Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution Rachel Nicholls deserves high marks, although she was clearly tired at the end of the performance. Brett Polegato and John Relyea were very good as Kurwenal and King Marke, and Michelle Breedt was a very experience Brangäne. The rest of the company was good, and it was an enthralling performance. Copyright © 1 December 2016 Giuseppe Pennisi, Rome, Italy RICHARD WAGNER TRISTAN AND ISOLDE TEATRO DELL'OPERA RACHEL NICHOLLS  << M&V home       Concert reviews        Billy Budd >>