# Heppner/Voigt Tristan



## spaceace27 (Dec 7, 2008)

Dear Users;
I recognise that I'm probably going to draw the ire of many of you by asking this, but I feel it's worth the risk. I've made a habit of making recordings of opera broadcasts off the radio/internet over the past year or so but, unfortunately, one really, really good one slipped through my fingers. I am referring, of course, to the one and only performance at the Met last season with Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt. If any of you happen to know where I could come across a recording of this performance, it would be much appreciated. Otherwise, I'll have to settle for yesterday's Barenboim/Lehman/Dalayman broadcast.


----------



## marval (Oct 29, 2007)

Hi spaceace27,

Welcome to the forum, sorry I can't help you. Do stick around and someone might be able to help. By the way which opera was it? that might give us a clue.


Margaret


----------



## spaceace27 (Dec 7, 2008)

It was Tristan.


----------



## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

*CTP: TC's Tristan und Isolde connection*

Umm... yeah- _hello_.

Last season's _Tristan und Isolde_ at the MET (March 2008) was cursed by some ill-fortune on the part of an Isolde (Deborah Voigt... on one night she got sick in the central act) and _two_ Tristans (Heppner was ill for much of the run, and one of his "covers" had an accident with one of the stage mechanisms). Therefore, the only night they sung together was March 28... closing night. I was in attendance, and by now the board regulars are probably quite weary of my references to it. That performance was *not* the radio broadcast.

The performance that _was_ broadcast on radio did have Deborah Voigt as Isolde, but Robert Dean Smith as Tristan. It's a worthy performance (as indeed was the Lehman/Dalayman/Barenboim rendition) and there may yet be two ways to get a "mulligan" on that Smith/Voigt/Levine _Tristan und Isolde_.

1) Metropolitan Opera, I'm made to understand, has some presence on Satellite Radio. If so, and you have a way to access it, I should figure that they have to do some "retrospectives" and "encore presentations," to fill the air-time.

2) The broadcast performance was also HD-filmed and released to specialty-theatres as part of the "MET in HD" program. Since that time, I've seen the March _Tristan und Isolde_ on public-television "arts" programming for television broadcast. Keep your eyes open.


----------



## spaceace27 (Dec 7, 2008)

The HD broadcast from last season had Robert Dean Smith, not Ben Heppner. Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt only appeared together in the final performance of the opera, an event for which a broadcast was rushed together. Ironically, Margaret Jane Wray, who was scheduled to appear as Brangaene that night, dropped out and was replaced by Michelle DeYoung, making her the only one of the principals to appear in all the performances of said production. I'll have to look into the satellite radio thing. Good thinking, and thank you, sir.


----------



## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Ah, now it comes back to me. I remember that the MET had a "simul-webcast" of the concluding night performance. (I guess they were feeling sheepish about Heppner/Voigt appearing only that one time.) As to what happened to that transmission after the web-cast, I wouldn't know. Knowing the Met, it's not impossible that they'll wind up packaging it in some format as a premium for some exorbitant contribution. After all, they have to pay for that 200+ million dollar budget somehow, and the three-figure single seat opera ticket sales just don't quite do it.


spaceace27 said:


> Ironically, Margaret Jane Wray, who was scheduled to appear as Brangäne that night, dropped out and was replaced by Michelle DeYoung...


Yeah, I know. I was there.


----------



## spaceace27 (Dec 7, 2008)

You are very fortunate. I'm not a New Yorker as yet, but I did get to see Renée in that year's production of Otello, so I did well enough for myself.


----------

