Believe it, another Tristan und Isolde!

[Brünnhilde forever]

Hmmm. Not bad at all, but so far, I have only watched the first act. I debated if I should make it a long afternoon, but decided to take it in digestible slices. I didn't read the booklet on purpose, in fact I didn't read anything about the director Johnnes Felsenstein, wanted to make up my own mind about this East German director, who is, or was, very famous there. The booklet says it's a live recording but   no audience in sight or even heard. 

I like the setup, imagine yourself in the audience: First there is the stage, rough boards of an old ship, with parts of big staves left and right. Then comes an empty space, large enough for the 'crew', the chorus, which only later rises up and sinks down again and disappears. Then the conductor and the orchestra and as a final background a blue ocean photographic image, with just a few whitecaps, nothing stormy. This seascape remains throughout the first act. The stage, a rectangular space, rotates now and then to emphasise the performer, like: Isolde and Brangäne in their scene and with Tristan and Kurwenal in the darkened part. To lighten the seriousness of this review: This stage does move now and then at a pretty fast clip; Tristan was standing at the very edge, feet together and as it moved he suddenly spread his feet to kind of braze himself. Well, of course, he was on a ship still at sea!

That's all I am going to tell you, almost; have to tell you of the tall Tristan, Richard Decker, and his Isolde, Iordanka Derilova,  such a wisp of a woman, figure reminds me of Callas, one full head shorter than Tristan! Kurwenal too is very tall and thin, Tristan about the same size as Storey in the Chereau production. Now I look forward to this afternoon's second act.

The performance is from the Anhaltisches Theater, Dessau, Germany, 2007, conducted by Golo Berg.

[Superhorn]

  Do you know if this director is related to the once famous East German opera director Walter Felsenstein, (1901-1975), some of whose productions have recently been released on CD?  He was active for many years in the former East Germany, and his productions were marked by extremely meticulous and detailed productions which were given a lavish amount of rehearsal time unheard of today
with their busy performance schedules.
   The casts were not glamorous and international, but a recent very favorable review of the DVD set by critic Peter G Davis in the NY Times describes the singing as surprisingly good.  And Kurt Masur was a frequent conductor for these productions before he became internationally known.
  I would very much like to see these DVD  performances; they include a German language production of Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen which enjoyed great acclaim.

[Brünnhilde forever]

Aha! Thank you, you provided the link I was looking for:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Felsenstein

I had given a fleeting glance to an advertisement for a Felsenstein collection, but don't even recall if it was for CDs or DVDs. I most certainly will give it a closer look.

I just finished watching the second act and am still digesting it. The entire action is 'heroic', that's one word I can think of; not much movements, but yet deeply impressive. I'll tell you more after the third act.

Actually it is not fair to view this production after having watched the Chereau master piece a bare few days before; I shall try hard not to be influenced!

[Superhorn]

   Fortunately I can read German,and yes, he is the son of Walter Felsenstein.
The Felsenstein productions are on DVD. There is also a German language Otello conducted by Masur, among other things in the set.
   In his NY Times review of the DVDs, Peter G Davis states that these old productions are pretty straightforward and have none of the arbitrary and stupid
scenic and directorial gimmicks that are endemic in German opera today.
   Eurotrash was still in the future.