Last night the War Memorial Opera House saw the first of five San Francisco Opera (SFO) performances of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. This opera has not been performed here since the 2006–07 season, when the production directed by Thor Steingraber was conducted by then Music Director Donald Runnicles with tenor Thomas Moser and soprano Christine Brewer in the title roles. This new production was first staged at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice under the direction of Paul Curran. In bringing this staging to San Francisco, Curran made his SFO debut.
This occasion provided him with many opportunities to work with those that had become familiar with SFO. Indeed, the role of Tristan was sung by tenor Simon O’Neill, whose connection to SFO goes all the way back to his performances in the Merola Opera Program. Soprano Anja Kampe, on the other hand, was last seen here when she sang the role of Sieglinde in a performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre. At the other end of the time-line, so to speak, two Adler Fellows contributed to two of the lesser roles, tenor Thomas Kinch as Melot and baritone Samuel Kidd as a steersman.
As is often the case in opera, the narrative is one of convoluted confusions. Isolde is an Irish princess obliged to marry King Marke of Cornwall for political purposes. She is being brought to Cornwall by Marke’s knight Tristan. Her “baggage” includes a collection of potions; and, during her voyage to Cornwall, she decides that death would be better than marrying against her will. She shares a potion of atonement with Tristan, knowing that it will be fatal for both of them. However, what they drink is actually a love potion, which they experience just as their ship arrives in Cornwall.
Isolde (Anja Kampe) and Tristan (Simon O’Neill) in one of their more ecstatic moments (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)
In the second act they are now spellbound by the potion; and the entire act is, for the most part, an extended love scene. I say “for the most part” because it concludes when the knight Melot catches them “in the act.” Both he and Tristan draw swords, and Tristan is mortally wounded. (If this seems like an abbreviated account, rest assured that Wagner provided a generous account of some of his most passionate music for that “extended love scene!”)
The final act takes place in Tristan’s castle in Brittany, where he is slowly dying, tended by his servant Kurwenal. He is visited by both Marke and Isolde’s maid Brangäne, who had explained the power of the potion to Marke. Marke forgives Isolde, who focuses only on Tristan’s death. She then takes her own death potion; and, after her extended love-death aria, she is united with Tristan in the afterlife.
While there are no ends of twists and turns in this plot, Curran knew exactly how to keep things moving from one episode to the next with at least a minimally sufficient foundation of logic. Most important, however, was how the vocal work rose above all of that complexity. Under Curran’s direction all of the vocalists delivered credible (and usually compelling) accounts of each phase of the narrative. Thus, while the entire experience came close to five hours in duration, there was never a moment in which attention would lapse.
This was an account of Wagner’s commitment to “opera as drama” that would have done the master proud.
No comments:
Post a Comment