Tristan and Isolde

Tristan and Isolde (in German Tristan und Isolde ) is an opera in three acts of Richard Wagner, composed between 1857 and 1859, created on June 10th 1865 with the royal Theater of the Court of Bavaria with Munich and often considered as one of the tops of the Western opera. Inspired by mysterious Frau M.W., Mathilde Wesendonck, Tristan and Isolde is the first work created under the patronage of His Majesty King Louis II of Bavaria. While turning to the West and its torn seas, Richard Wagner offers to the world an opera which, based on a single idea, contorsionne on itself in a passion of an intensity such as it can lead only in one fine tragedy which, more than one renouncement, is a delivery. It is one of the best examples of the Wagnerian project to transform the opera into musical drama. The harmonic audacity of the music starts to make burst the framework of the tonality. The prelude of the first act became an orchestral piece with whole share, as famous as prestigious; the Liebestod (“death of love”) of Isolde, at the end of the opera, counts among the passages more upsetting which ever were made up.

Characters

Tristan , nephew of king Marke ( tenor )
Isolde , princess of Ireland ( soprano )
Marke , king de Cornouaille ( low )
Kurwenal , rider of Tristan ( baritone )
Brangäne , following of Isolde ( soprano )
Melot , friend of Tristan ( tenor )
a young sailor ( tenor )
a shepherd ( tenor )
a pilot ( baritone )
a quartermaster ( low )
the shepherd ( tenor )
sailors and knights of Cornouailles ( choruses )

Summary of the action

The argument is inspired by the Celtic legend of Tristan and Iseut. But Tristan and Isolde was also perceived often like the symbol of the impossible love between Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck (see Wagner).

For a long time, the Cornwall tried to be freed from the suzerainty of the King of Ireland which, in order to subdue the revolt, had dispatched a military forwarding on the spot that he entrusted to Morold, promised in marriage of his/her Isolde daughter. Armed with the sword that Isolde educated of the art of the magic had coated poison, Morold crosses the sea, but during a furious combat was killed by Tristan, the nephew of King de Cornouailles. However, before dying, Morold whose distinct head and the notched sword had been sent to the country of Érin under only authorized tribute had managed to wound its adversary which knew that, consequently, only Isolde had the antidote against the poison which corroded it. Thus, arriving like a shipwrecked man on the shores of Ireland under the name of Tantris, Tristan was collected by Isolde which, not being easily deceived lie and having discovered in the wound of the warrior a piece of the blade of Morold, took the resolution to be avenged for the man who had charmed his love to him. While he slept, Isolde holds up the sword, being on the point of embanking Tristan which suddenly woke up: the young man looked at not the sword who threatened it, but only the eyes of Isolde which, upset, released the weapon and looked after its enemy so that, cured, it had to never again cross this glance which had inspired pity to him and had diverted it of its goal. A few years later, peace was sealed by the marriage of old King Marke de Cornouailles with Isolde, event which, when Tristan itself was sent in embassy to come to seek the promised young person, was accompanied by an oath of lapse of memory for all the past. However, the girl of Ireland not wanting to imagine that it could bring in dowry its country to those which were formerly the vassal ones was by no means been willing to join this great forgiveness and to be solved with this arranged marriage.

Act I

The act is held on board a boat sailing towards the Cornwall. Tristan, accompanied by its faithful Kurwenal rider, was charged by his/her uncle king Marke with making come from Ireland his future wife, the Isolde princess. As the voyage touches at its end, this one leaves the dumbness in which it was cloîtrée (scene 1) to entrust to its following Brangäne a terrible secrecy (scene 3). Tristan, the valorous hero admired of all, is not other than the assassin of sound promised in marriage Morold, killed to free king de Cornouailles from the tribute which it paid to king d' Irlande. Wounded, it had been collected and looked after by Isolde which had not recognized it, until the day when, noticing a break on its sword, this one discovered its true identity. About to be avenged, it was stopped in extremis by a glance of love. Divided between hatred, the love and shame to be thus delivered to vassal of his/her father by the assassin of promised in marriage sound, Isolde chooses to be linked in Tristan in death (scene 4). It makes prepare by a its following poisoned beverage, that Tristan accepts with full knowledge of the facts (scene 5). Brangäne, which cannot be solved to carry out the order of its mistress, replaces the philter of dead by a philter of love. After drinkhaving drunk it, Tristan and Isolde fall in extase one in front of the other (it is however clear that the philter is only the revealing one of preexistent feelings), while the boat accosts and that king Marke advances to accommodate its been engaged (scene 5).

Act II

While the king left to drive out, Tristan and Isolde are found in secrecy in spite of the advised warnings of Brangäne. An immense duet of love of an exacerbated romanticism follows then. Of supremely erotic, it becomes little by little mystical: Tristan and Isolde sing their desire to devote their love by a death which would be the final triumph of the sincere and soft Night over the vain Day, perfidious and untrue. Here an extract celebrates booklet:

The duet is suddenly stopped by the arrival of Marke and its men. The king, in a length and concerning monolog, then expresses all the affliction which it feels while being seen betrayed by that it liked more than all in the world, with which it had bequeathed to be able and goods. Tristan, disconnected from the social world, invites Isolde to follow it in its country, death, before being thrown on Melot which betrayed it. As it is not defended, Melot wounds it seriously.

Act III

In Brittany, Tristan fails close to its castle of Kareol. Only Kurwenal and a shepherd takes care on him, awaiting impatiently the arrival of Isolde, the only one with being able to cure it. Tristan, which feels that its beloved is still in life, wishes to re-examine it to die finally. After an false alarm, the ship of Isolde is in sight. In an extreme state of excitation, Tristan tears off its bindings then, springs with the meeting of Isolde and dies in its arms.
Soudain, one sees another boat accosting. It is that of king Marke who, put at the current of the secrecy of the philter by Brangäne, came to link Isolde with that she likes. Kurwenal, believer with a revenge, pushes back the new arrivals vigorously, kills Melot and dies itself in some steps of its Master. Isolde, in extase in front of the corpse of Tristan, dies transfigured. Marke, dismayed, blesses the corpses, while the curtain falls slowly.

Leitmotive

General information

The Leitmotiv E of Tristan and Isolde are very numerous, but they all proceed almost of the first notes of the opera which represent the consent and the desire. When they as a whole are looked at, one cannot miss being astounded by their unit.

Throughout the opera, Wagner, as with its practice, transforms them, the réorchestre, opposes them, combines them, thus expressing with an extremely rare accuracy the most subtle feelings. By hearing (even unconsciously) these transformations sets of themes, the spectator instinctively seizes the evolution of the characters and their emotions.

Examples of leitmotive

Here, as illustration, some of the very many reasons for the opera:

Those which one can hear in the prelude, of unequal importances:

Some other reasons among most important:

Selective discography

Fritz Reiner, with Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Nickel silver, Herbert Jansen and Emanuel List, recorded on the sharp one at the time of the representation to the opera of Covent Garden, to London, in June 1936.
With Birgit Nilsson (Isolde), Wolfgang Windgassen (Tristan), Christa Ludwig (Brangäne), Eberhard Waechter (Kurwenal), Martti Talvela (King Marke), the choruses and the orchestra of the festival of Bayreuth, the version of Karl Böhm remained a reference of the interpretation of this opera. Recorded in 1966, it breaks radically with former interpretations and testifies to the new reading of work by Wieland Wagner (grandson of the type-setter, then responsible for the festival and initiator for the period called “new Bayreuth”). It is characterized by the impetuosity of the direction of orchestra.
Wilhelm Furtwängler was to direct and record a version testimony of the time of the great Wagnerian song, with Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior (then regarded as the largest interpreters of the roles of Isolde and Tristan). The war, unfortunately, thwarted its projects. The recording took place only in 1952, in London, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Flagstad in end of a career (doubled by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the top C). Nickel silver having died, it is Ludwig Suthaus which sang the role of Tristan.
Herbert von Karajan, Ramón Vinay (Tristan), Martha Mödl (Isolde), Ludwig Weber (king Marke), Hans Hotter (Kurwenal), Will go Malaniuk (Brangäne), with the chorus and the orchestra of the festival of Bayreuth, recorded at the time of the representation of the festival of Bayreuth in 1952, the year following the reopening of the festival (which had been interdict at the time of the Dénazification).
Herbert von Karajan, in studio with the Philharmonic orchestra of Berlin (1972) offers powerful and hallucinated Tristan, in particular with the 3rd act, of Jon Vickers, beautiful Isolde of Helga Dernesch, perfect Btangäne of Christa Ludwig, but especially an orchestra which gives a vision hedonist of the partition.
Carlos Kleiber presents with the Staatskapelle of Dresden Tristan & Isolde (1982) to the pure beauty, undoubtedly even shifted mozartien with Isolde of Margaret Price but exhausted Tristan, Rene Kollo with very beautiful King Marke of Kurt Moll.

See too

Tristan and Iseut

Literature

Tristan is a short rather ironic news of Thomas Mann which takes again at the same time the topic of the impossible love and whose intrigue is tied (or unties itself) around the reduction for piano of the opera of Wagner.

External bonds

Partition (noncomplete):

small pages
large pages

Booklet:

original Booklet with English translation: remarkable site, which proposes also a detailed analysis of different leitmotive.
original Booklet with Spanish translation

Simple: Tristan und Isolde

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