Tristan at the Met

[uffeviking]

Had to start a special thread for this one, March 22nd!

Good god, what voices! ! ! !

[uffeviking]

I have no idea how often Matti Salminen has sung König Marke, at least a hundred and every time I hear him he seems to have found another phrase to change, to improve on. He was miraculous today!

Are knight and I the only ones at GMG listening to this performance? 

[Haffner]

I have no idea how often Matti Salminen has sung König Marke, at least a hundred and every time I hear him he seems to have found another phrase to change, to improve on. He was miraculous today!

Are knight and I the only ones at GMG listening to this performance? 

Missed it, due to my own dumbitute. Salminen is a terrific Marke, that's easy to agree with.

[uffeviking]

You can rectify that, Andy: The last act is still to come! It should be a new experience to hear Robert Dean Smith in the most important and taxing part for any tenor. So far, he is outstanding!

[Haffner]

You can rectify that, Andy: The last act is still to come! It should be a new experience to hear Robert Dean Smith in the most important and taxing part for any tenor. So far, he is outstanding!

Where Where WHERE!!!

[uffeviking]

That's where I listen to it:

http://www.king.org/

If you are good at finding your way around BBC 3, it's there too:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/

Now they have a short intermission chat. 

[knight66]

Sorry Lis, I have had to opt out, folk popping in, nice, but it means I have left it to you. Do tell us how it went.

Mike

[uffeviking]

Too bad! Lock your company in the basement, they should have asked if it's ok to drop in!

Ok, no problem, I have Haffner sitting next to me and we both are enjoying it! 

[Haffner]

Too bad! Lock your company in the basement, they should have asked if it's ok to drop in!

Ok, no problem, I have Haffner sitting next to me and we both are enjoying it! 

I'm there (headphone-ally speaking that is!).

[Haffner]

JAHM-min'!

Clear sound from the BBC...this is really killer!

[uffeviking]

How do we get rid of all those goose pumps, the chills still running up and down my back?

All I can say is to repeat your, - Haffner's - remark: a real killer!

The Met finally did it, came up with a winner! 

[Haffner]

How do we get rid of all those goose pumps, the chills still running up and down my back?

All I can say is to repeat your, - Haffner's - remark: a real killer!

The Met finally did it, came up with a winner! 

I am guessing that this one got recorded, and I'm not missing it as a cd. The sound was stunning, Isolde in the final scene riveting. I'm definitely very impressed. Hail the Met!

[Greta]

Well, just got back from the Met HD broadcast at our local theater!  First time we have had these broadcasts in our area.

It was a beautiful production, quite spare and radiantly lit. I had never heard Robert Dean Smith before and thought he was just breathtaking in Act III! He seemed to just get better and better the further in...and Matti Salminen, yes, what a rich and nuanced performance as King Marke! We were immensely impressed though with Eike Wilm Schulte as Kurwenal, what a voice and the acting was spot on, wow.

The ladies...Michelle DeYoung is such a handsome and striking woman and sang a really superb Brangane, clear as a bell voice! Deborah Voigt also gave a very good performance...while not necessarily my favorite Isolde voice, her acting was completely stunning. Those eyes! She was so expressive and in the moment.

The production was pared down but imaginative, very interesting how they transformed the one set into so many different locations with just lighting and a very few props. Though I never was sure what going on with "the box" that the King and Isolde kept hanging out in during Act II, and we didn't really get the toy soldier men on the floor at Tristan's house (early Act III), but other than that it was a wonderful concept.

What did you guys think, those that saw it? I loved the interviews between the acts and behind the scenes stuff too!

Pics:

[uffeviking]

Just one remark, of the multitude at another opera forum, about the brainless film production:

... just returned from the HD Tristan at the movies, and I found the
performance quite satisfying--Voigt, Smith, and deYoung did excellent
work indeed. BUT I am FURIOUS about the "split-screen" bulls..t
imposed by the Television director, Barbara Sweete. EVERY time she
pulled away from the stage and split the screen into 4-7 little boxes,
I wanted to scream. It was annoying in Act I, and completely
destructive in Act ii. The glorious forward propulsion of the music
and the dramatic continuity were continually interrupted by these
"effects." My God, when Voigt & Smith sang "we are one, forever" in
the Love Duet, they were stuck in individual boxes with a big line
between them.
I honestly want to know if anyone at the Met saw this cinematic,
unmusical and inappropriate use of the camera in advance!"

[uffeviking]

Haffner,I believe we are lucky we only listened to the performance, judging from some remarks, and all we want is a good CD to listen to it again. 

This from a Brit on the Wagner newsgroup:


I just watched act one, or at least several stretches thereof. I didn't find myself caring for the style of TV direction, with the picture frequently being broken up into various boxes and shuffled around the screen - it's all a bit reminiscent of an over-enthusiastic amateur's first day with a digital image processor - but the main stumbling block wasn't that, or the design.
Frankly, the whole thing is an object-lesson in why live operas shouldn't ever be televised, except perhaps from a single camera position which gives an uninterrupted shot of the whole stage and never ventures any closer. Sadly, the cast all look quite spectacularly ludicrous: Isolde is someone's gurningly loopy great-aunt, Brangäne isn't any better, and the men might have strayed in from a particularly uninspired episode of Monty Python. The standard of acting would disgrace an infant school nativity play - though in fact that's a very poor comparison because in my experience infant school nativity plays display a level of commitment and truthfulness that's way beyond anything on offer at the Met this afternoon.
And on the subject of that set: it looks OK, if rather boring, in the long shots (which *are* in fact being taken from the centre of the stalls) but what on earth does it look like, I wonder, from even slightly off to the side or from the gods? There goes all that carefully-worked-out symmetry...
Not an enjoyable experience, I'm afraid.

[gmstudio]

I went to see the HD broadcast today...I've been looking forward to this for a YEAR now...

What the bloody #$%^&* was up with the TV direction?  Those boxes were AWFUL!  They COMPLETELY killed the mood, the atmosphere, the whole reason for me being there...it was so goddamn awful that I left as Act II was starting...I just couldn't take it anymore.

It completely killed the pretense of being "there" in the moment of the work...it was a constant reminder that we were watching a televised event.

I've been to most of the HD broadcasts over the last two years, but I will never, EVER go again if they continue this horrid practice.

[uffeviking]

Now you can join the army of protesters who have bombarded Mr. Gelb and his brainless camera director with letters of complaint and promises to never again fall for another one of his misrepresentation of opera!

[Greta]

Oh god, yes, I forgot to mention the boxes!! Why?!?!? I was expecting just a nice multi-angle camera as presented on stage, but nooooo.....they had to be clever...

Seriously, I thought I would go crosseyed trying to look between the boxed inset views of Tristan and Isolde (during the love duet?) - who were standing right next to each other!! It really made me mad!

the men might have strayed in from a particularly uninspired episode of Monty Python.

  That's a good one! Yes, they had all a bit of the bumbling idiot about them, no matter how wonderfully they sang. I just could not feel romanced by Robert Dean Smith at all, sorry, just no. I only really got into his Tristan when he was about to die. Really the only half-decent looking guy was the one playing Merlot, I mean - Melot...

What did ya'll think of the orchestra and Levine? Is it just me or did some of his tempi seem a tad quick? The playing was fine, I don't know if I'd say stellar, like it didn't reach out and grab me musically, but mostly it was good.

And what of the ending of the Liebestod? It seemed odd, left rather open ended as to whether she commits suicide or not, we didn't even see her take the drink, or fall down, or anything...   

[Haffner]

Haffner,I believe we are lucky we only listened to the performance, judging from some remarks, and all we want is a good CD to listen to it again. 

This from a Brit on the Wagner newsgroup:


I just watched act one, or at least several stretches thereof. I didn't find myself caring for the style of TV direction, with the picture frequently being broken up into various boxes and shuffled around the screen - it's all a bit reminiscent of an over-enthusiastic amateur's first day with a digital image processor - but the main stumbling block wasn't that, or the design.
Frankly, the whole thing is an object-lesson in why live operas shouldn't ever be televised, except perhaps from a single camera position which gives an uninterrupted shot of the whole stage and never ventures any closer. Sadly, the cast all look quite spectacularly ludicrous: Isolde is someone's gurningly loopy great-aunt, Brangäne isn't any better, and the men might have strayed in from a particularly uninspired episode of Monty Python. The standard of acting would disgrace an infant school nativity play - though in fact that's a very poor comparison because in my experience infant school nativity plays display a level of commitment and truthfulness that's way beyond anything on offer at the Met this afternoon.
And on the subject of that set: it looks OK, if rather boring, in the long shots (which *are* in fact being taken from the centre of the stalls) but what on earth does it look like, I wonder, from even slightly off to the side or from the gods? There goes all that carefully-worked-out symmetry...
Not an enjoyable experience, I'm afraid.

Sounds pretty bad. But the sound and singing were pretty awe-inspiring for me.

[uffeviking]

And what of the ending of the Liebestod? It seemed odd, left rather open ended as to whether she commits suicide or not, we didn't even see her take the drink, or fall down, or anything...   

Aren't you confusing your acts, Greta? Or maybe being unfamiliar with the opera. Isolde shares the love potion with Tristan in the first act, it's effect on them both causing all the tragedy.

Isolde did not commit suicide.

I would like to recommend an excellent book for you to read to make yourself familiar with Wagner's operas:

TheWagner Operas by Ernest Newman. Princeton University Press.