Review of Tristan and Isolde at the English National Opera
WAGNER’S Tristan and Isolde, like so many of his other works, is a grandiose vision.
It lasts over five hours and explores the great themes of love, death and loyalty. It is also my least favourite Wagner opera as I have always felt it to be the only one of his mega-works that really feels it is five hours long. The works comprising the Ring cycle or The Mastersingers may be just as long, but eventful story-lines and the seamlessness of Wagner's music carry one along on an irresistible adventure that commands the attention throughout.
Tristan is less compelling: the story is slow to develop and often ponderous and the present production at ENO does little to tackle this problem. The much vaunted designs by Anish Kapoor are indeed very striking, but after the initial thrill, they contribute little. Indeed, particularly in the first act, the set seems to emphasize the static nature of the production.
Its huge triangular walls divide the stage into three areas, with the middle of them hardly used until nearly two hours into the opera. Until then, their main function seems to be to keep the two lovers apart, which hardly makes for compelling viewing.
The singing, though, especially that of Australian tenor Stuart Skelton as Tristan, was outstanding, with American soprano Heidi Melton offering good support as she belted out the part of Isolde, while the orchestral playing was even better than the singing.
The second act had more to offer visually
Indeed, with so little action onstage, the best thing to watch was often the vigorous, committed conducting of Edward Gardner, who has established himself as a real master of Wagner's music. His impeccable control of the pace and volume of the music was magnificent throughout.
The second act had more to offer visually, with a much more intriguing design by Kapoor in the shape of a massive circle rising from the stage, looking like some sort of deep cave, or possibly some sort of festering structure which reminded me of some of the less wholesome things I have been known to find festering at the back of my fridge.
You know the sort of thing: where one cannot tell, beneath all the mould, what it was when it was left there some months before. Anyway, it provided a good setting for Tristan and Isolde to clamber about and find each other.
I could not understand why their servants looked so like fops from an Elizabethan comedy, or why the King of Cornwall's army wore uniforms that seemed to be something out of Star Wars, but perhaps these were just further symptoms of my feeling that the design of the production was confusingly out of keeping with the opera itself.
Well worth seeing for Edward Gardner's conducting and Stuart Skelton's singing - and even Anish Kapoor's designs, if one prefers grandiose sculpture to normal operatic design - but taken all together this production did not quite work for me.
Box Office: 020 7845 9300 or box.office@eno.org (showing until July 9)