Classical Music & Video

Customer Reviews:
The Met was altered to a sty housing two hogs in this horrid Trisolde
This is pretty much a failure. It seems most agree that the staging is awful, along with the acting. But, to my ears, even the sound(meaning performance) is hardly satifactory. Even if the performance was better, the staging is sound bad that it dilutes any chance of this being a success. I mean, this is an opera so the visual is just as important as the aural.

Eaglen and Hepner have the romantic chemistry of George Bush and Sadam Husein. Not at any point did I feel the characters felt for one another. And regarding their size, which is impossible to ignore, actually interferes with their performance(Eaglen especially-she is huge-if not bigger) which makes it difficult for her to grace the stage. In fact, the best moment of this entire performance is the love duet-when both characters are immersed in the background-reducing both characters to mere silhouettes-a brilliant stroke when the characters are about as sensual as lawn mowers.

In terms of performance, Rene Pape is extraordinary-proving once again has the most beautiful voice of any bass in the world. His Mark is unforgettable and could be the greatest on disc. Unfortunately, he is the singular upside. Now that the Barenboim dvd is available-go with that(though it has many quirks as well) but at least it doenst reduce the third act to a hog surrounded by (literally) a toy horse, a toy tower, and toy soldiers(about one foot by one foot in dimension–???–too literal take on minimalism(jk) which is so absurd as to completely distract from the performance while you attempt to figure out how someone could be getting paid for so absurd an idea.

Rene Pape earns two stars. . Levine and the met-orch provide a beautiful backdrop(as always) earning the final star,though they are not enough to stage this sty. Dont waste your time.

GORGEOUS VOICES TRANSCEND LEVINE’S HURRIED, UNINSPIRED CONDUCTING
In my opinion, James Levine has little feeling for Wagner. His bubbly, brisk, bright, ebullient style works better for colorful Italian opera than for the ponderous languor of a Wagner tragedy. This Tristan und Isolde fails to elicit the proper degree of pain and suffering, mostly because Levine breezes right through the score, which ends up sounding not only rushed but a little too pat, as though Levine were merely marking the score in rehearsal rather than settling down for an actual, live performance. Above all, the feeling of urgency and desperation to Tristan and Isolde’s love is missing. The orchestra itself plays impeccably, but again it all sounds a little too “by-the-numbers.”

Having said that, I don’t object to this production as much as I do, say, to Levine’s Das Rheingold, which fell on my ears with a resounding thud. Here, Levine is at his best when expressing the lighter side of love. This music drama is full of both light and darkness. It is the score’s shadow side, the lovers’ death wish, that eludes Levine. Wagner’s sinuous score becomes almost brittle in this conductor’s hands.

The production works mainly because of the singing of the two leads. While I would have liked to have heard a little more turmoil and passion roiling up in Eaglan during the first act, she has a delectable voice with a dulcet top that I could listen to forever. Her liebestod is perfect. Heppner, meanwhile, is a smooth and sweet-toned tenor, with just the right hint of vulnerability in his voice. He’s not an ideal heldentenor, yet he sings the role beautifully. The reviewers who claim that there is no chemistry between Heppner and Eaglan in the title roles are just plain wrong. The chemistry is in their voices, which melt into one another divinely. Their voices were made for each other. To criticize Heppner and Eaglen for their size or because they don’t look the part is unfair.

Rene Pape is a strong-voiced Marke and Katarina Dalayman is a solid Brangane. The rest of the cast is uniformly stalwart.

The lighting, with its subtle and sometimes not so subtle variations both in intensity and color, is superb in evoking moods. I also liked the way the shadows dramatize how the lovers become one in death. Despite the darkness (and the fact that the audience can’t really see her), at one point, if you look carefully, you can faintly make out a beautiful smile on Eaglan’s face as she listens to Heppner sing. The sets are elegant and minimalistic, with a geometric theme (four main, radiating lines form triangles by converging upstage center), though they work least well in Act Three; by then the eye craves a change.

The production looks and sounds great on DVD, although be forewarned: the audience doesn’t stop coughing, sneezing, and clearing its throat even for a second. What a racket!

All in all, this is a solid, enjoyable Met production. However, on DVD, for all its defects in how it was shot and edited for video, compared to this one I still prefer the 2005 production recorded at the Grand Theatre de Geneve, mainly because of Armin Jordan’s passionate conducting. He just has more empathy for this opera than Levine does.

Very Good Production of a Brilliant Opera
I felt impelled to offer a review after reading so many that were critical of the principals in the cast. In truth, the cast is simply wonderful, and couldn’t be more so. Eaglen, in particular, is a stunning Isolde, granting some of the most luscious vocals to the role I have ever heard. The rest of the cast is equally good, and the orchestra is positively spot on, with Levine as flawless at the helm as ever. Heppner and Eaglen may not look the part of the young lovers envisaged by the story, but given the quality of performances they evoke, it is difficult to ask for more. That said, the production is far from perfect; the set and the staging, in particular, often leave something to be desired, and there is something about this version that keeps it from being as breathtaking as Tristan has the potential to be. The Met’s version of Parsifal, also on DVD, seems much more to do justice to the greatness of Wagner. However, Tristan and Isolde is a diffcult opera, and after having seen a number of version on DVD, I firmly believe that this is the best. If you are looking for a very good production of one of music’s greatest operas, give this one a chance; musically, at least, you cannot do better.

Tracklisting:
1. Strauss: Thus Spake Zarathustra -
2. (Bonus Track) Churchill / Morey: Heigh-Ho! -
3. (Bonus Track) Fucik: Florentine March -
4. (Bonus Track) Morris / Arnie Lortzing Koschat: Waltz Medley - Selections from Valeta; Tulips From Amsterdam; Clog Dance; Snow Waltz -
5. Stolz: Salomé -
6. Khachaturian: Sabre Dance -
7. Mozart: Air of the Magician from Bastien and Bastienne -
8. Mozart / Schikaneder: O Isis and Osiris from The Magic Flute -
9. Gershwin / Gershwin / Heyward: I Got Plenty o Nuttin from Porgy and Bess -
10. Saint-Preux: Concerto pour une voix -
11. Grieg: Solveig s Song from Peer Gynt Suite -
12. (Bonus Track) Lincke: Lasst den Kopf nicht hängen from Frau Luna -
13. Leigh / Darion: The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha -
14. Rodgers: Cinderella Waltz from Cinderella -
15. Steiner: Tara s Theme from Gone with the Wind -
16. Shostakovich: Second Waltz -
17. Tchaikovsky: Moderato from Swan Lake -
18. (Bonus Track) Hermans: Carnaval Festival -
19. Humperdinck / Wette: Little Brother Dance With Me from Hansel and Gretel -
20. Humperdinck / Wette: Where Each Child Lays Down His Head from Hansel and Gretel -
21. Churchill / Morey: Some Day My Prince Will Come from Snow White -
22. Tchaikovsky: Fanfare from Swan Lake -
23. Mussorgsky: The Old Castle from Pictures at an Exhibition -
24. (Bonus Track) Lehar / Herzer: The Only Thing I Care About from The Land of Smiles -
25. Arlen / Harburg: Somewhere Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz -
26. Gold / Boone: This Land Is Mine from Exodus -
27. Weiss / Douglas / Thiele: What a Wonderful World -