Wagner, Tristan und Isolde
From Seen and Heard International
By: Bernard Jacobson; Picture © Rozarii Lynch / Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera, soloists, cond. Asher Fisch, dir. Peter Kazaras, set and costume designer Robert Israel, lighting designer Duane Schuler, chorus master Beth Kirchhoff, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, Seattle, 31.7.2010 (BJ)
Annalena Persson (Isolde) and Clifton Forbis (Tristan)
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which opened Seattle Opera’s 2010-2011 season in a new production by Peter Kazaras, is justly regarded as the most influential work in the history of music since the mid-19th century. Whether that redounds entirely to its credit is a fair question.
As a consequence of the chromaticism that the composer took further here than in any other of his works, the music suffers from a pervasive lack of harmonic pulse. Vitiated by the absence of a truly propulsive bass line, everything happens on the beat, with a squareness that stands in stark contrast to Brahms’s combination of equally striking harmonic invention with life-giving rhythmic flexibility. The ultimate legacy of what Wagner achieved here may be found in 20th-century atonality, and only those untroubled by the want of real movement in the music of the Second Viennese School can reasonably regard Tristan’s influence as a good thing.
Such stylistic considerations aside, however, there could hardly be any doubt of the overwhelming sonic glory the opening-night performance achieved under Asher Fisch’s masterful baton. The orchestral sound, crucial in any Wagner opera, was magnificently full, rich, and delicately nuanced, from soaring strings, plangent woodwinds, and threatening drums and heavy brass to offstage hunting horns and a solo on a Holztrompete, or wooden trumpet, borrowed for the occasion. With this sumptuous support, every voice projected a quality to match that of any operatic cast in the world.
As Isolde, Swedish soprano Annalena Persson, making her US debut, unfurled a securely centered tone that could dominate the ensemble with apparent ease. There is an edge to her sound, but an edge that thrills rather than disturbs. And for once we could watch a singer whose slim, tall figure and facial beauty made a truly credible Isolde. Her worthy partner as Tristan was Clifton Forbis, a tenor with a warm baritonal tinge to his voice, and equally adept in portraying the intermingled torment and ecstasy of his role.
Brangäne and Kurwenal were those familiar company favorites, Margaret Jane Wray and Greer Grimsley. The smaller roles of Sailor, Shepherd, and Steersman were well taken, and Danish bass Stephen Milling, as King Marke, revealed perhaps the richest voice of all.
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