TRISTAN UND ISOLDE

I liked Tristan best of all. Oh, how I loved Tristan, with his night and the interminable death rattle in his throat.

Paul Claudel, in a letter from 1907

Honour called for a death potion; the subconscious responded with a love potion. And forbidden passion, repressed for so long, suddenly burst into the light, shattering all the barriers. Uncontrollable desire has never been expressed as powerfully as by Wagner in Tristan und Isolde, the most absolute representation of love-as-passion in the West. But is this perpetual devouring, which is as painful as it is orgasmic, a form of mystic knowledge or a dangerous illusion? For this sacred pair of lovers, dissolution into the eternal night seems like the only possible way out. Wagner feared that his opera would drive people insane; but for audience members immersed in the endless melody until the final climax, Tristan und Isolde offers a unique experience. And to do the smouldering content and the purity of the form justice, it takes the infinite talent of Sir Simon Rattle conducting the London Symphony Orchestra; Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton, the legendary artists in the title roles; and Simon Stone, the ideal director to reveal what a black sun signifies to today’s audience.