Tristan und Isolde

Composer: Wagner, Richard

Librettist/Text Author: Wagner, Richard

Conductor: Barenboim, Daniel

Orchestra: Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Chorus: Bayreuth Festival Chorus

Chorus Master: Eberhard, Friedrich

Brangane: Priew, Uta

Isolde: Meier, Waltraud

King Marke: Holle, Matthias

Kurwenal: Struckmann, Falk

Melot: Elming, Poul

Shepherd: Maus, Peter

Steersman: Solyom-Nagy, Sandor

Tristan: Jerusalem, Siegfried

Young Sailor: Elming, Poul

Costume Designer: Yamamoto, Yohji

Stage Director: Muller, Heiner

Television Director: Hohlfeld, Horant

---

Festival: Bayreuth Festival

Venue: Bayreuth Festspielhaus

Playing Time: 03:56:29

Catalogue Number: A05009688

Libretto

Tristan und Isolde DE

Tristan und Isolde EN

Synopsis

Tristan und Isolde

---

The premiere of Tristan und Isolde production at the 1993 Bayreuth Festival was greeted with that "mixture of enthusiastic approbation and predictable condemnation" quoted by Wolfgang Wagner, which is the usual indicator of success in Bayreuth. Conducted by Daniel Barenboim with fire and sensitivity, the production was staged by the late German dramatist Heiner Muller. The sets were designed by Muller's longtime associate Erich Wonder, and the costumes by Japanese couturier Yohji Yamamoto. Siegfried Jerusalem as Tristan and Waltraud Meier as Isolde have consistently drawn enthusiastic acclaim for their performances, not only in the year of the premiere, but in subsequent years as well. Muller and Wonder have compressed the monumental story into a clear and fascinating geometry of love. Wonder created highly evocative spaces through projections of colors and forms which shift according to the mood. One widely noted example of Muller's elegant, restrained interpretation, in which small gestures replace sweeping displays of passion, is the famous love duet, in which Tristan and Isolde, instead of embracing rapturously, stand back to back and side by side and touch, ever so lightly, only the tips of their fingers.