United States Wagner, Tristan und Isolde: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of San Francisco Opera / Eun Solar Kim (conductor). Conflict Memorial Opera Home, San Francisco, 23.10.2024. (HS)
Manufacturing:
Director – Paul Curran
Units – Robert Innes Hopkins
Lighting – David Martin Jacques
Battle director – Dave Maier
Refrain director – John Keene
Forged:
Isolde – Anja Kampe
Brangäne – Annika Schlicht
Tristan – Simon O’Neill
Kurwenal – Wolfgang Koch
King Marke – Kwangchul Youn
Shepherd / Sailor – Christopher Oglesby
Melot – Thomas Kinch
From the very first notes, what emerged from the orchestra pit for Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde was, appropriately, transcendent. In Wednesday’s second efficiency of 5 at San Francisco Opera, music director Eun Solar Kim led with care, intelligence and incandescent readability to deliver out all of the nuances of the rating. It was her first go at conducting this huge work, however the outcomes had been revelatory. Phrases took form, dynamics fell into place, and tempos quickened and subsided naturally to create the overwhelming sense of craving that infuses the music. The prelude emerged from a whisper, and pauses felt tentative. The ‘Tristan chord’ requested its query and hung within the air. The music gained momentum slowly, surging and ebbing, foreshadowing the character of the entire 4plus hours of the opera.
The glory of the opera, its music, was the automobile that made the generally nice, generally spotty singing and a less-than-incisive manufacturing come collectively in an unforgettable efficiency. The opposite preludes equally laid the groundwork for what was to return with uncanny presence. The spooky scene-setting of Act II, with its surging chords interrupted by the sounds of distant looking horns, labored its magic to deliver additional tingling to your entire act. The slow-moving opening of Act III swelled lugubriously to arrange what turned out to be probably the most wonderful scene in the entire manufacturing (and it was not the Liebestod).
Loads of particular person efforts punctuated the orchestral glories, together with a number of offstage moments, amongst them John Pearson’s solo in Act III on Holtztrompete (a picket trumpet with brass mouthpiece and bell) and Benjamin Brogadir’s plangent cor anglais within the Act III shepherd’s songs. The horns galloped splendidly offstage in Act II hunt music, and the echoes of the identical calls from the pit hit simply the suitable tone.
The most effective factor to say in favor of director Paul Curran’s staging, first seen at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice in 2012, was that it didn’t get in the way in which of the music. The set consists of two gigantic, curved partitions that match collectively in Act I to be the hull of an outsized ship, and switch to grow to be convex for the backyard in Act II. For some motive, they hung in midair to outline Tristan’s citadel in Act III. The items had the benefit, in all circumstances, of projecting the singers’ voices.
Interactions among the many forged had been extra lively than typically seen on this opera, and particularly good in moments of confrontation. Then again, the central second of the opera – the title characters’ passionate tryst – fell flat visually because the singers barely held palms underneath a leaning, silvery tree.
The units put the highlight on the singers, and soprano Anja Kempe (final seen at San Francisco Opera as a remarkably agile Sieglinde within the 2012 Ring) had her finest moments within the love duet. Her voice caressed the music with fluid softness, a trait overshadowed in different scenes by squally excessive notes and usually loud singing (which was pointless – Kim had the orchestra completely balanced to let the vocal traces shine). In her performing, Kempe made Isolde a temperamental Irish princess, revealing each pent-up frustration in Act I with Tristan, the hero who defeated her fiancé in battle solely to be nursed again to well being by her ministrations. He now brings her to Cornwall to be wed to the king.
The glory of the forged was Simon O’Neill’s Tristan. On this punishing position, his clarion tenor, all polished metal and glistening neon, rose to the event time and again. He by no means flagged, by no means appeared to be holding again, his vocal richness gaining additional depth and energy with every succeeding scene. We may really feel the internal thrills within the second in Act I when a love potion has lastly pushed the title characters to achieve for each other (actually, on this staging, as they crawled slowly to return collectively because the music climbed to a climax).
O’Neill discovered a welcome liquidity within the Act II love duet, however the triumph of the night got here in Act III. His capability to behave together with his voice, his face and his physique mixed to make Tristan’s lengthy scene of agony come to life. It shook me to the bones. Having been stabbed by his accuser on the finish of Act II (after being caught kissing Isolde), he can barely rise from his blood-stained chair. More and more agitated at the opportunity of Isolde returning, O’Neill gave voice to the character’s insanity, rising hopes and hallucinations, with thrilling accuracy and a wealth of colours. It was staggering theater.
It’s not typically that something can upstage Isolde’s Liebestod, which brings the opera to a detailed with a few of Wagner’s most unforgettable music. On this night, Kempe selected to sing a lot of it loudly, bleating some notes when a smooth, lovely line would have been safer and extra applicable. The orchestra, nonetheless, savored the music’s cohesiveness and craving harmonies, lastly resolving with satisfying richness within the last measures.
Among the many vocal standouts in the remainder of the forged, Annika Schlicht as Brangäne (Isolde’s servant and companion) fielded a resonant and fluid mezzo-soprano, her steadiness enjoying towards Kempe’s impetuousness. Making her U.S. opera debut, she floated mellifluous warnings beside the Act II tryst. Baritone Wolfgang Koch, in his firm debut, introduced probably the most lovely voice within the forged to Kurwenal (Tristan’s devoted attendant). His singing melded with O’Neill’s brilliantly in Act III.
As King Marke, bass Kwangchul Youn (lately Sarastro in final season’s The Magic Flute) made probably the most of his lengthy Act III speech, begging forgiveness from Tristan whose lifeless physique lay at his ft. He infused the music with extra heat and definition than we often hear. Present and up to date Adler Fellow tenors delivered small however colourful roles with aptitude: Christopher Oglesby’s refreshing directness animated the Act I sailor music, and Thomas Kinch’s haughty presence knowledgeable Melot’s temporary half because the courtier who outs the lovers.
Harvey Steiman
