Catherine Foster (Isolde)

Directing Bayreuth’s new production of Tristan und Isolde (which opened the festival on Monday 25th July) fell to Roland Schwab and replaces Katharina Wagner’s excellent production which ended its time on the Green Hill in 2019. The opening event was attended by the great and the good in the usual manner which included former German Chancellor and Wagner aficionado, Angela Merkel.

Over the course of his studies, Schwab learned his ‘trade’ under Götz Friedrich in Hamburg and worked also as an assistant at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Zurich Opera working alongside the likes of Harry Kupfer and Ruth Berghaus. What an apprenticeship from a ‘trio’ of great and inspiring directors.

Based largely on the 12th-century romance, Tristan and Iseult, by Gottfried von Strassburg, the work is widely acknowledged as a ‘pinnacle’ of the operatic repertoire and is notable for Wagner's unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonal ambiguity, orchestral colour and harmonic suspension.

His inspiration for writing it was mainly influenced by the philosophy of Schopenhauer as well as by his affair with Mathilde Wesendonck. Although Wagner was working on Der Ring des Nibelungen at the time he was also intrigued by the legend of Tristan and Isolde.

The opera proved difficult to bring to the stage. Lots do, of course. Alois Ander, employed to sing Tristan, proved incapable of learning the part while parallel attempts to stage it in Dresden, Weimar and Prague came to nothing winning the opera a reputation as unperformable.  Even the planned première on 15th May 1865 had to be postponed until Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld had recovered from a throat infection. Therefore, the opera finally received it première on 10th June 1865 at the Königliches Hoftheater und Nationaltheater, Munich, with Hans von Bülow conducting and Malvina’s husband, Ludwig, partnering her as Tristan.

Having sung the role only four times, Ludwig died suddenly prompting speculation that the exertion involved in singing the part of Tristan had killed him. The stress of performing Tristan may have also claimed the lives of conductors Felix Mottl in 1911 and Joseph Keilberth in 1968. Both men died after collapsing while conducting the second act.

Eventually, Tristan found ground and was enormously influential to such distinguished composers as Alban Berg, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss and, indeed, Benjamin Britten. In fact, during the playing of the prelude, my thoughts wandered and caught up with the opening scene of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier.

I felt Schwab’s interpretation of Tristan was a well-planned and thoughtful affair aided greatly by Piero Vinciguerra’s grand and sweeping set, in place for the entire show. Spartan but futuristic, it was constructed in the style of a luxury ocean-liner, accommodating an oval-shaped pool at lower deck level with the same permutation mirrored above. Therefore, clearly open to the elements, it added weight to Wagner’s metaphor of Day and Night which he usefully employs in the second act to designate the realms inhabited by Tristan and Isolde.

For instance, the world of Day is one in which the lovers are bound by the dictates of King Marke’s court in which they must smother their mutual love and pretend as if they do not care for each other. A realm of falsehood and unreality. And under the dictates of the realm of Day, Tristan is forced to remove Isolde from Ireland and wed her to his Uncle Marke, actions totally against his secret desires. In stark contrast, the realm of Night, is representative of the intrinsic reality in which the lovers can be together, their desires openly expressed and, therefore, reaching fulfilment. But the realm of Night also becomes the realm of Death, the only world in which Tristan and Isolde can really be as one forever in eternity.

When it came to the forest scene in act two the oval-shaped skyline was simply adorned with one or two shrubs and lots of hanging foliage thus setting the scene to mark the arrival of King Marke’s hunting party while the shepherd’s mournful tune, performed by a solo oboe/cor anglais on the upper stage level, captured a lovely and inviting Arcadian scene of serene beauty and tranquillity.

The oval-shaped pool, in fact, also acted as a barrier to the lovers’ first meeting but once refreshed and alert after bonding with the love potion prepared by Brangäne it turned out to be their romantic spot where everything happened between them.

The philosophical element appertaining to the opera also becomes apparent when one recalls Wagner was among one of the first European composers to appreciate Buddhism and, indeed, to be inspired by this religion. Therefore, in 1856, in the prime of his creativity and 33 years old, he read his first book about Buddhism and conceived two deeply connected opera projects associated with it: one was Die Sieger - The Victors, an opera scenario based on an Indian Buddhist legend translated from Sanskrit but, more importantly, the other was Tristan und Isolde.

These two projects mirrored Wagner’s burning desire for the consummation of his love and the necessity of renunciation and this Buddhist opera project occupied Wagner’s mind for decades until his death in 1883. Indeed, the composer’s last words were about the Buddhist figure of his scenario and his relationship with women and, therefore, I thought it most appropriate that Schwab gave a nod to this statement by permanently displaying on the left of the stage in bright-red neon lighting the word ETERNITY suitably written in Sanskrit.

Overall, Nicol Hungsberg’s lighting effects coupled with Luis August Krawen’s video sequences helped enormously the mood of the moment highlighting the stage action at every twist and turn. Between them they conjured up all sorts of permutations ranging from a dangerous kaleidoscope whirlpool in which Tristan and Isolde first enter the pool wrapped in total sublime love to a night vision of starry romantic skies while the pool turned flaming red at the killing of Tristan. And when telling of the frustration of her seemingly hopeless situation, Isolde rages madly about the stage often clasping a bridal headdress in desperate hope with the water and light patterns wildly changing mirroring her anxiety, actions and angst.

I was pleased to see Catherine Foster back at Bayreuth after thoroughly enjoying her performance in the role of Brünnhilde in Frank Castorf’s bicentennial Ring production. A singer with grit and stamina, she sang at every performance (15 cycles in all) plus returned to the Green Hill in 2018 to reprise the role in Die Walküre conducted by Plácido Domingo.

Harbouring strong vocal qualities coupled with an exquisite wide-ranging voice, Ms Foster is well placed to take on such great Wagnerian roles as Brünnhilde and Isolde. And partnering American Heldentenor, Stephen Gould as Tristan (who, incidentally, sang the role in Katharina Wagner’s production) they proved a brilliant deuce and worked so well together.

The curtain-call for these eminent Wagnerians spoke volumes about their respective performances, while the pairing of German baritone, Markus Eiche (Kurwenal) and Russian mezzo-soprano, Ekaterina Gubanova (Brangäne), widely recognised as one of the finest mezzo-sopranos of the younger generation, spoke volumes, too.

The mean role of Melot was dutifully sung by Icelandic baritone, Olafur Sigurdarson, who also undertook the beastly role of Alberich in Rhinegold while Georg Zeppenfeld (who made his Bayreuth début as King Heinrich in Lohengrin in 2010) put in a calm and detailed performance as King Marke. As usual, he was unhurried in the delivery of his part, producing a forlorn approach to this great role showing his contempt not for Isolde but for the betrayal by his nephew.

Of course, the big moment comes at the end of the opera with Isolde, in a climatic burst of dramatic energy and transfigured by her emotions, sings so tenderly and sorrowfully the ‘Liebestod’, which comes from Liebe (love) and Tod (death). However, in this production, Isolde was not seen cradling her lover Tristan in her arms in the traditional manner but standing a short distance away from him thus mirroring the barrier that stood between them right from the start.

The orchestra, under the baton of Markus Poschner, chief conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, played brilliantly commenting on every psychological and dramatic development of the opera through a series of leitmotivs and the endless melodising that Wagner substituted for arias and duets.