Last chance to watch the Kaufmann-Harteros Tristan
OperaThe Munich 2021 Tristan will go down as one of the epochal productions of our time… for all sorts of reasons.
But you really need to watch it here. Last chance before it’s gone.
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Yawn. (The Aix Tristan was better and less ”epochal”.)
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/103071-000-A/richard-wagner-tristan-et-isolde/ The Aix Tristan . You can watch it here, if you need to. Much more humane , consequently more moving than the soulless Munich production.
I wasn’t moved much by Act III in the métro.
Act III blew my mind. It conveyed wonderfully the fragility, the loneliness and the transience of the modern individual . The impermanence of relationships , the fluidity of reality ( that is frequently mixed with myth and fantasy) , the desire to end it all , but also the resolution to start up a new life.
Think both worth watching. Shame no English titles on the Aix version
You must be kidding to compare overrated Rattle with magnificent Petrenko – sorry those are two different worlds
Both productions were horrible
The biggest ovation, very big indeed, was for Kirill Petrenko, then the orchestra played a special tribute for him, followed by another for Nikolaus Bachler. Afterwards all went out to a ‘curtain call’ for patrons who watched on large screens. A happy summer day (at least one) in Bavaria.
The extras were edited out of the on-demand version playing yesterday.
Just to clarify: “… all went out to a ‘curtain call’ for patrons who watched on large screens” is an annual tradition. The final performance of the BSO’s summer festival is broadcast on large screens onto Max-Joseph-Platz as part of its “Oper für Alle” programme. The cast/conductor are rushed from the stage to take a bow before the outdoor audience, rather diminished this year because of rain.
Someone posted the performance on YouTube complete with the post-performance musical tributes and the “curtain call” to the outdoor viewers. (It has hard-coded English subtitles, and the first seconds of Act III have been cut off.)
I spoke too fast: the upload on YouTube which I saw includes the musical tributes to Petrenko and Bachler inside the theatre, but not the “curtain calls” to the outdoor audience.
Yes indeed. This is as fine as anything Jonas Kaufmann has done, his Lied skills and musical intelligence to the fore, with plenty of power. Act III in the streamed performance has to be heard to be believed. The Bavarian State Orchestra plays mostly quietly, turning in one ravishing phrase after another from all sections: a nice way to say goodbye to Kirill Petrenko, and despite slow tempos. Wolfgang Koch’s firm-toned Kurwenal, Anja Harteros’s clearly enunciated Liebestod, Mika Kares’s steely Marke (channeling Martti Talvela) add to the pleasures. If you can survive the separated-armchair Act II, even the staging has its pluses; it is a better experience on screen than in the house, but made-for-TV is where we are now in opera.
“Last chance” might be exaggerated and “last chance for free” probably more appropriate. I suppose this will be made available on DVD or paid streaming,
Very unlikely. In 8 years in Munich Petrenko allowed Lulu, Tote Stadt and Mahler 7. That’s it. And I fear: that was it…
Then why did they record it at all ? This kind of professional recording comes with a cost, so I suppose with a veto from Petrenko and no possibility to rake in some money there would have been no recording. And after all, Petrenko accepts the Digital Concert Hall in Berlin.
Probably better listening to it than watching it! It’s a very silly production!
Kaufmann, the best Tristan since Vickers. Period.
Oh , yeah? He might become. Not lacking a certain technical competence, Tristan s soul eludes Herr Kaufmann for the moment whatsoever. Because he approaches it as if it were a trophy to be won. A bombastic thing to flatter his vanity. An ego affair.
Talking about Tristan s soul, there are moments of intense inwardness , psychological finesse and poetic refinement in his 2018 performances of Act 2 ( conductor Andris Nelsons). By comparison, this Munich “epochal ” frigid thing represents rather an involution.
Paging Spas Wenkoff and Ben Heppner (who should not have sang the role, as he destroyed his voice, but he was better than Kaufamann in any case)
Ben Heppner was fabulous indeed and so was Wenkoff but even Jerusalem in Bayreuth when it was still worth going as good productions like Mueller
Ummmm, this sounds like total crap. Thin, out of tune winds and anemic strings. What the bloody hell!
Password required?
me too. I wonder how I can get one…