# Tristan und Isolde 2015/2016?



## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Greetings, 

Could you tell me which venues in Europe will perform Tristan und Isolde during season 2015/2016? And if they have English supertitles?

Thank you very much.

Cheers


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

You'll find plenty in Germany, plus Paris has it. Some of the new season schedules aren't posted yet.

This is my go-to link for such things. Although it's worth searching Google for specific opera houses too as Operabase continues to be far from comprehensive.

http://www.operabase.com/plan.cgi?lang=en&season=2015/16&ci=de


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

I was going to suggest Operabase too, here are the search results for T&I performances thru 2016:

http://www.operabase.com/oplist.cgi?id=none&lang=en&is=tristan&by=&loc=&stype=abs&sd=21&sm=7&sy=2015&etype=abs&ed=28&em=12&ey=2017


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Cavaradossi said:


> I was going to suggest Operabase too, here are the search results for T&I performances thru 2016:
> 
> http://www.operabase.com/oplist.cgi?id=none&lang=en&is=tristan&by=&loc=&stype=abs&sd=21&sm=7&sy=2015&etype=abs&ed=28&em=12&ey=2017


You did it the smart way


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I'm going to T & I at the Met in 2016 if anyone wants to join me. This opera is my baby and I've never been to the Met before, so I'm holding my breath and praying it won't be Regietheater.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

I was going to suggest that the ENO were doing it next year, implied here
http://www.officiallondontheatre.co...279259/english-national-opera-slashes-prices/

but it's not in the current line up.
http://www.eno.org/whats-on#ENO-Opera

Sadly the ENO seems to be withering away and I doubt it can continue in anything like its present form for long.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Thank you very much for your help.

Celloman, i was searching Mets website and i haven't noticed Tristan's performance (http://www.metopera.org/Season/2015-16-Season/) When will it happen?

Belowpar, could you give me a hint on the dates?

Also, from the Opera Database, the performance at Finnish National Opera seems to be a suitable candidate for my quest . I know Tristan enough to dismiss english supertitles. However the person i want to bring with me not, thus requiring english translation.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

dionisio said:


> Celloman, i was searching Mets website and i haven't noticed Tristan's performance (http://www.metopera.org/Season/2015-16-Season/) When will it happen?


It was announced by the New York Times. Here is the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/arts/music/tristan-to-open-met-season-in-2016.html?_r=0

The 2016-17 season will open with _Tristan_, starting in September. Tickets won't be available for purchase until next year, but it doesn't hurt to plan ahead. I will probably go in mid to late-October.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

dioniso sadly the ENO is in dissaray and have just dispensed with thier 'controversial' Director of Productions. I suspect that they have also done away with T&I as they desperately seek to cut costs.



Very sad, my love of Opera came more from attending their productions than listening to LP's.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Celloman said:


> It was announced by the New York Times. Here is the article:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/arts/music/tristan-to-open-met-season-in-2016.html?_r=0


From the article:

_The new "Tristan" will be conducted by Simon Rattle, the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, in a rare Met appearance, and will star Nina Stemme, one of the world's most sought-after Wagnerian sopranos, as Isolde, Met officials said. The Australian heldentenor Stuart Skelton will sing Tristan, and the bass René Pape will play King Marke, they said.

The production was originally scheduled to be directed by Willy Decker, who staged the Met's boldly unconventional production of Verdi's "La Traviata," but the Met said he had withdrawn, citing health reasons._​
Sounds promising! I've been hoping to encounter Stuart Skelton again after hearing him sing Das Lied von der Erde with the Chicago Symphony several years ago. A truly thrilling voice. They have some tall shoes to fill as the last T&I I saw at the Met was Daniel Barenboim conducting Waltraud Meier, but 2016 brings a formidable team.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Hum... i just realized that the operas at ENO are sung in English. To hear Wagner sung in English is...strange


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

dionisio said:


> Hum... i just realized that the operas at ENO are sung in English. To hear Wagner sung in English is...strange


Actually, it doesn't feel at all strange. The recent ENO 'Mastersingers' was well sung, and the libretto was brilliant. Plus of course the music is a glorious as ever.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Don Fatale said:


> Actually, it doesn't feel at all strange. The recent ENO 'Mastersingers' was well sung, and the libretto was brilliant. Plus of course the music is a glorious as ever.


Is this mastersinger to be broadcast?


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

DavidA said:


> Is this mastersinger to be broadcast?


I think it was at the time? February. So good I saw it twice.

I also believe singing his Opera's in the local language was a practice that Wagner approved of.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

... and I approve of it too, except when it becomes a company's _raison d'etre_, as is the case with ENO.

Singing in a particular language should be an artistic decision, not a political one.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've always found Wagner in any language but German strange. Wagner merely took for granted what was then a universal practice, though he was concerned enough to inquire who would do the translation when _Tristan_ was to be produced in Italy.

No composer's setting of words was more sensitive to their sound and cadence than Wagner's, which isn't surprising given that he wrote his own libretti, and words and music were conceived together. He even invented new words for the sake of their sound. Every time I've heard his carefully calculated accents displaced onto another language the experience has been painful.

I don't ever want to hear the daughters of the Rhine introducing themselves with anything other than

"Weia! Waga!
Woge, du Welle,
walle zur Wiege!
Wagala weia!
Wallala, weiala weia!"

or Alberich clambering after them sputtering anything but

"Garstig glatter
glitschiger Glimmer!
Wie gleit' ich aus!
Mit Händen und Füssen
nicht fasse noch halt' ich
das schlecke Geschlüpfer!"

I have never understood the claim that Wagner is a poor librettist. His words paint in clear colors his characters and situations by their very sounds: they are part of his music; they are "music" themselves. If we don't hear that verbal music, we're not really hearing Wagner. I would rather hear his operas in his own language and not comprehend half of the words than hear the character drained out of them in translation.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Woodduck, I love you, do you know that? :angel: :kiss:


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

What's also quite nice are the strong German consonant sounds. The staccato quality of a busy passage is in perfect contrast with the vowels of a sustained passage. It imbues the music with a sense of "oomph" masculinity that you don't get from opera sung in the romance languages.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Woodduck, I love you, do you know that? :angel: :kiss:


Vielen dank. 

It compensates me for the hatred and bile I inspire elsewhere on the forum.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Couchie said:


> What's also quite nice are the strong German consonant sounds. The staccato quality of a busy passage is in perfect contrast with the vowels of a sustained passage. It imbues the music with a sense of "oomph" masculinity that you don't get from opera sung in the romance languages.


Maybe that's why it seems to be more of a guy thing here.
SL excepted


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I am not sure if German is such a masculine only language, in some pieces (like Schubert's lieder) it can sound wonderfully soft and tender. But whether masculine or not, I love it


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

SiegendesLicht said:


> I am not sure if German is such a masculine only language, in some pieces (like Schubert's lieder) it can sound wonderfully soft and tender. But whether masculine or not, I love it


True. In Hansel and Gretel and Zauberflute also.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

SiegendesLicht said:


> I am not sure if German is such a masculine only language, in some pieces (like Schubert's lieder) it can sound wonderfully soft and tender. But whether masculine or not, I love it


German is certainly not fluid like the romance languages, but it has a wide range of sounds which a sensitive composer can exploit expressively. When we think of Wagner's diction we may think immediately of _Stabreim_, the strongly alliterative style he used in much of _Der Ring_ to create an archaic, rugged, barbaric atmosphere. But this beautiful passage from _Tristan_ - hear the music as you read it - has nothing in common with that:

O sink hernieder,
Nacht der Liebe,
gib Vergessen,
dass ich lebe;
nimm mich auf
in deinen Schoss,
löse von
der Welt mich los!

I remember distinctly when I first heard Lotte Lehmann singing songs of Schumann and was impressed by the potential beauty of the German language. It's a singer's responsibility to bring out a language's expressive potential.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Opera always sounds better in the language it was written in. I saw the ENO Carmen the other day and English is simply not as suitable as French. Of course if we want a dramatic experience with understanding it's better to have it in English as long as it's skilfully translated. Interesting Karajan got into trouble for doing Italian operas in Italian in Austria!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

DavidA said:


> Opera always sounds better in the language it was written in. I saw the ENO Carmen the other day and English is simply not as suitable as French. Of course if we want a dramatic experience with understanding it's better to have it in English as long as it's skilfully translated. *Interesting Karajan got into trouble for doing Italian operas in Italian in Austria!*


Do you know how long ago that was? In the 1950s it was apparently still common in Europe to do opera in translation. Listening to the live 1950 recording of _Parsifal_ sung by Callas and Christoff in Italian is a peculiar experience indeed!

On the other hand, Lauritz Melchior recorded some excerpts from _Otello_ in German which he manages to make sound quite idiomatic. If I didn't know beforehand...


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> Do you know how long ago that was? In the 1950s it was apparently still common in Europe to do opera in translation. Listening to the live 1950 recording of _Parsifal_ sung by Callas and Christoff in Italian is a peculiar experience indeed!
> 
> On the other hand, Lauritz Melchior recorded some excerpts from _Otello_ in German which he manages to make sound quite idiomatic. If I didn't know beforehand...


Mid 1950s I think.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Katharina's new Tristan at Bayreuth is getting a warm-ish (ie. not booed) reception: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/26/tristan-und-isolde-review-bayreuth-festival

She apparently shows a new restraint in her staging, at least in contrast to her disaster of a Meistersinger. It does however re-cast Marke as an unforgiving villain, and not the sympathetic victim the libretto really makes him out to be. But at least there are no crocodiles copulating, and it appears to be Nazi-free.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Woodduck said:


> ...
> I don't ever want to hear the daughters of the Rhine introducing themselves with anything other than
> 
> "Weia! Waga!
> ...


That's a joke, right? But I wondered how it could translate... you need to click on the picture to see what Google makes of it.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Don Fatale said:


> That's a joke, right? But I wondered how it could translate... you need to click on the picture to see what Google makes of it.
> View attachment 73201


No, it isn't a joke. That's the way Rhinemaidens are supposed to talk and, by God, that's the way I want to hear them talk. There are no English, Spanish, French or Maori Rhinemaidens, and there never will be any. The rivers in those countries will just have to find their own maidens. But if a Thamesmaiden ever does show up, she'd better not try to infiltrate a _Ring_ production and teach the others English. I have spies who speak perfect _Stabreim_ and will catch the fraudulent little nixie immediately and have her tossed out on dry land and left to shrivel in the sun.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I just checked what the Thamesmaidens sung in Goodall's Ring.

Weia! Waga!
Wandering waters,
lulling our cradle
Wagala weia
Wallala, weiala weia.

It sounds fine to me, although most is left in the original Maori, you'll be pleased to hear. As well as meaning, preserving the alliteration is vital, and I think it does so. Now I have the records out I think I'll listen to the full Rheingold in English this evening.

And thanks for the new word: _Stabreim_. Didn't know that's what it was called.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

We seem to have drifted a bit on this thread. Is it not headed Tristan und Isolde 2015/2016?


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