Let's talk Tristan und Isolde.....................

35413 Views 251 Replies 43 Participants Last post by DavidA, Sep 11, 2018

Itullian

Discussion Starter · Feb 13, 2015

Always controversial.
Why do you like it or hate it?

It's sometimes called the greatest opera ever.

What makes it so compelling?
It really grabs me. Those chords opening Act 3 , sounding and wafting upwards always grip me.

What are it's meanings? What is its power? Is the power of the potion real or just an excuse?

What makes it the iconic work that it is on a musical and psychological level?
Wagner said a truly great performance would drive you mad.
Conductors have died conducting it. Karajan said he needed to come up with another way to conduct it.

Lovers of this opera.............let's talk Tristan.

:tiphat:

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Celloman

· #5 · Feb 13, 2015

I have the Bohm and the Furtwangler with Nilsson and Flagstad, respectively:

And yes, if you haven't figured out by now, this is my favorite piece of music.

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Celloman

· #7 · Feb 13, 2015

The part in Act 2 where Tristan makes his entrance thrills me every time. Wagner is a master of suspense, and he uses long sequences to accomplish this. Other favorite moments for me are the Prelude (obviously!), the end of Act One, the part in Act 2 when Branganae sings from the tower and the lovers' duet, and last but not least, the Liebestod. The latter is quite possibly the most transcendent music I have ever heard.

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Celloman

· #8 · Feb 13, 2015

Itullian said:
I just think its incredible.
The prelude, Isolde's scene on the ship, the love duet and duel, the opening of act 3 with the clarinet or whatever it is, Tristans mad scene and then the liebestod.

amazing...............
.

That is an English horn I believe. It's supposed to sound like a shepherd's pipe, doesn't really, but who cares?

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Celloman

· #91 · Feb 15, 2015

DavidA said:
Well, of course, they could have lived happily ever after!

Ironically, the ending would have been much less satisfying if this had happened. It is the fact that Tristan dies that inspires Isolde's Liebestod, the most joyful moment in the opera. Greater darkness gives birth to greater joy.

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Celloman

· #176 · Mar 3, 2015

This is my reaction to the beginning of Brangaene's warning in Act 2:

Rectangle Font Material property Parallel Monochrome

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Celloman

· #178 · Mar 23, 2015

Itullian said:
Would it have been a better story without the potion?

How could Isolde have fallen in love with a man she had just hated without taking it? It's fascinating to me that Isolde wanted to take that death potion, but instead received the love potion. Wagner symbolically equates them with each other. Would Isolde have loved Tristan without the potion? Probably not, but ultimately this doesn't matter because the potion chose her.

Tristan and Isolde don't have an option. They are compelled to love.

As Ingrid Bergman famously said in Casablanca, "I wish I didn't love you so much."

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Celloman

· #213 · Dec 3, 2015 (Edited)

DarkAngel said:
Yes it is a magnificent remaster by Pristine XR, even though the EMI is good mono studio sound it is easily surpassed in all respects by Pristine XR with ambient stereo......you have never heard Flagstad sound this good, so much insight into her vocal technique and tonal shadings, essential buy

Same comments for 50 Furtwangler Ring (la scala) with Flagstad's Brunnhilde performance, amazing sound quality now in Pristine XR

Why don't I have this?!

Pristine makes me angry. Several of my Wagner recordings are now obsolete! It's not fair...

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