# What is wrong with this review of Tristan at ENO



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The ENO's first Tristan in 20 years was reviewed in opera news. It was a long article and after reviewing the sets ( controversial) and direction in a 9 paragraph article only in the last two paragraphs did they speak about the singers. How far we've come from Flagstad and Melchior!!!! Or Nilsson and Vickers.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Can we read _this_ review anywhere?

But I guess I don't need to, as this today is where we are. Venerated and greatly loved operas used as vehicles for a director's own visions.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

There is a Opera News review of the ENO Tristan und Isolde online, but it must be a different one since it's 8 paragraphs long and discusses the singers in five of the paragraphs. Though I suppose it only really talks about the singing in the last three.

The one I linked to is not a detailed deconstruction of the finer points of the singing performances, but it is not a review of a CD recording, but of actual live opera. And a Wagnerian opera, at that.

It makes sense to me that they discuss the many elements of the opera as seen in the theater, and the many other people involved in putting such a work on stage. This also make sense when a major audience for such a review is people considering attending a different performance of the same production run. People can be really picky about opera productions.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The ENO's first Tristan in 20 years was reviewed in opera news. It was a long article and after reviewing the sets ( controversial) and direction in a 9 paragraph article only in the last two paragraphs did they speak about the singers. How far we've come from Flagstad and Melchior!!!! Or Nilsson and Vickers.


Back in those happier Wagner days, the critics hardly needed to say much about Flagstad and Melchior, unless perhaps it was on the night that Melchior fell asleep in act three and Flagstad had to kick him so he wouldn't snore during the Liebestod.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I assumed incorrectly that more people read Opera News. Sorry. I had difficulty reproducing the article but this image is all but the first 1.5 paragraphs so you can get a gist. Here only a small portion is devoted to the singers. Sorry, but yet again in reproducing my image to post here part has been cut off when posting online. My gay nerves cannot deal with the difficulties of effortlessly posting an article to the site so this is the best I can do.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks I sure do get the gist now I've seen it. The review of the singing is more facile that we often post on our forum. If that is the standard of reviewing performance, how on earth is the opera afionado to develop a greater understanding of the art?

And something else. If opera reviewers concentrate on reviewing a production (and its directors ideas) it further exacerbates the situation.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> View attachment 88294
> I assumed incorrectly that more people read Opera News. Sorry. I had difficulty reproducing the article but this image is all but the first 1.5 paragraphs so you can get a gist. Here only a small portion is devoted to the singers. Sorry, but yet again in reproducing my image to post here part has been cut off when posting online. My gay nerves cannot deal with the difficulties of effortlessly posting an article to the site so this is the best I can do.


From what I can read, that's the same review I linked to.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

mountmccabe said:


> From what I can read, that's the same review I linked to.


Perhaps I saw different things in the article and you are correct in your take. Sorry.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Perhaps I saw different things in the article and you are correct in your take. Sorry.


Nothing to be sorry about. Part of it is that we have different expectations for opera reviews, but I overreacted and lost sight of the fact that it's just not a very good review by nearly any standard.

The discussions of singing were simplistic, but so was most of the rest of the article. There are some details about the sets, without making anything clear. There are fewer details about the staging actions, but little on what any of this accomplished.

And that second long paragraph isn't about the opera at all, just background on Kramer. It's somewhat interesting, but if column inches are limited, I don't understand including it.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Such a lovely Isolde to be madly in love with and fighting over............

You gotta admit that love potion is very effective (or is this some strange British humor)


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I'd be totally brassed off with Brangaene for mixing up the potions!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Silly productions, incompetent reviews... Business as usual.

There seems to be a fad for setting parts of this opera in hospital rooms. I recall a Bayreuth production like that, I think, where Tristan dies in intensive care, and apparently we'll have a similar scene in the Baden-Baden production that's coming to the Met. I guess part of the problem is doing _Tristan_, a medieval tale, in modern dress, since hospitals are where mortally wounded people tend to die nowadays. Of course it's rather absurd to think of Kurwenal, Prime Minister Marke, his press secretary Melot, Isolde and her attache Brangaene getting past hospital staff, piling into Tristan's room en masse, and proceeding to bump each other off. Isn't modern dress supposed to make opera _more _credible somehow?

It appears that the ENO has gone these productions one better, in that Marke or his staff had the foresight to send hospital beds to the lovers in Cornwall. Maybe there was radon gas down in the caves where they sang their duet.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

DarkAngel said:


> Such a lovely Isolde to be madly in love with and fighting over............
> 
> You gotta admit that love potion is very effective (or is this some strange British humor)


My word!!!!! I hope she sang well.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

DarkAngel said:


> Such a lovely Isolde to be madly in love with and fighting over............
> 
> You gotta admit that love potion is very effective (or is this some strange British humor)


Haven't heard Melton's Isolde but her Sieglinde in the latest Bayreuth Janowski Walkure was pretty good. This Opera News review is less critical than some of the other reviews that mostly talked about how she started a lot better than she ended.

She appears to have gained quite a lot of weight since she was Third Norn in the Met Lepage Ring three or four years ago--I wonder if that's causing her some problems with stamina for more physically grueling roles like Isolde. Here's how she looked at the time.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I saw this with belowpar, and Loge also saw it. It was a grand evening and certainly not a bad production. Despite the many oddities (costumes!) was visually arresting at times. The singing and playing was pretty good. We discuss it in the opera reviews thread.

That being said, this current thread isn't about this particular opera per se, but rather the observation that reviewers are more inclined to review a design than performers. Revisiting the Opera magazine review, I'm gratified to note that it is rather more inclined toward the performance(s), although as a major new production, that aspect is also discussed.


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