Tristan und Isolde

189 pieces since 2006 — at 7 companies, most often at Metropolitan Opera.

189 pieces
7 companies
21 years

Company Bayreuth Festival

noch mehr tristan! noch mehr isolde!

La Cieca just can’t get enough of the old Love-Death. So this week’s edition of Unnatural Acts of Opera begins a classic performance of Wagner’s music drama from the 1976 Bayreuth Festival under the magical guidance of Carlos Kleiber. Tristan und Isolde (Act 1) UPDATE: Well, you can spank La Cieca’s butt and call her […]

By 55 comments

Company Colorado Music Festival

Not very epic opera

On Thursday night, July 29th, I attended the Colorado Music Festival’s concert entitled “Epic Opera”. The program as advertised on the CMF website was to feature the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde with soprano Jane Eaglen, followed by Lorin Maazel‘s suite “The Ring Without Words”. Unbeknownst to me, or presumably anyone else until […]

By 55 comments

Company English National Opera

Company Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Sex please: we’re British

The finer performances of Tristan und Isolde have a way of sounding like a four-hour improvisation, the fruit of a single moment of inspiration that makes one forget how emotionally manipulative and painstakingly crafted the music really is.

By 7 comments

Company La Scala

Zaubernacht

A YouTuber new to La Cieca by the name of Promptersbox, has managed to make available the entire La Scala Tristan und Isolde. Your doyenne is not sure exactly where the intense magic in this performance comes from: Patrice Chéreau, Daniel Barenboim or Waltraud Meier. But magic it is!

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Company Metropolitan Opera

Be my guest!

James Levine turns 72 this year. Even though his health has improved considerably in the past year and he may continue to conduct for a decade or more, it seems inevitable that he will step down as the Met’s Music Director sometime in the next few years to assume the role of Conductor Laureate.

By 100 comments

Company Philadelphia Orchestra

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