Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

1. how you come across to it:
I first learned about Wagner and his many operas from a music dictionary (written in Chinese) that I read (and sometimes, studied) as a primary-school boy.

2. why this piece?
I was fortunate enough to have the chance to attend Daniel Barenboim's debut performance at the Metropolitan Opera last week. The cast included Katarina Dalayman (Isolde), Peter Seiffert (Tristan), Michelle DeYoung (Barangaene), and Kwangchul Youn (King Marke).

3. (and...)
This is a great opera with the most trivial plot. The story is there just to provide a framework for a mood brought out by the music, for Wagner's musical study of love. Or, instead of love, should I say the feeling of falling in love? Wagner is able to capture this complex psychological state so well with his music and lyrics. This feeling is not just a maddening desire of another person, but also, a sense of guilt, a feeling of lost (in Act I, the word "verloren" is even set to the first leitmotiv in one of Isolde's lines), a craving desire to escape reality, and an intense blissfulness defying any verbal description.

I have ambivalent feelings toward this opera. To my taste, the sentimentality of the music is excessive, almost decadent, though whenever I listen to the prelude or Liebestod I could only confess my secret enjoyment of the music's hypnotic power. Wagner's music is literally like a love potion that transports his audience to the dream castle of King Ludwig, ruled not by the King, but by fantasy, visions, flickering stars, and shiny moon.

As to the performance I attended, Barenboim's interpretation is overall satisfying. Kwangchul Youn sang an extremely memorable King Marke with nuanced expression and authority. Dalayman's Isolde was also good, though I preferred slightly her Barangaene in her previous Met production with James Levine. Seiffert's Tristan was overall disappointing, though he did manage to showcase his intensity in Act III. Barenboim's tempo at the final Liebestod was not too slow (as compared with, say, Furtwaengler's in the following recording) but it sounded surprisingly calm and peaceful. Perhaps this is really the way to interpret this famous piece: could Isolde still have any agitated passion when she is dying so blissfully?

Kirsten Flagstad singing Liebestod (live), with Furtwaengler conducting:


Waltraud Meier singing Liebestod (live), with Daniel Barenboim conducting at la Scala (2007):