CELTIC LEGEND
Richard Wagner’s opera on tragic love set to win hearts in Beijing this month. Chen Nan reports.
Falling in love for them was like poison. But this opera shows that love can be as strong as death.” Mariusz Trelinsky, Polish opera director
Richard Wagner’s opera, Tristan und Isolde — produced by the National Center for the Performing Arts, Metropolitan Opera, Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden Opera — will be staged in Beijing later in the month.
Conducted by Lyu Shaochia from Taiwan and directed by Mariusz Trelinsky from Poland, the opera will be performed by Chinese and Western singers.
The NCPA has presented a variety of operas since it was established in Beijing in 2007. This opera is being presented on its 10th anniversary this year.
“We have produced more than 50 operas and collaborated with many foreign opera houses,” says NCPA vice-president Zhao Tiechun.
“Tristan und Isolde was the most complex opera written in its time and is still one of the most intricate operatic masterpieces,” he says.
It will be the fourth Wagner opera that the NCPA has produced, following Der Fliegende Hollaender (The Flying Dutchman), Lohengrin and Tannhaeuser.
Tristan und Isolde is an opera in three acts, spanning five hours, and is based on the tragic love story of English knight Tristan and the Irish princess Isolde. German poet Gottfried von Strassburg wrote the original poem inspired by a Celtic legend. With the English and Irish at war in the 12th century, the two lovers had to die to declare their love.
Premiered in 1865, the opera is viewed as one of the most influential operas by Wagner.
German composer Richard Strauss once wrote: “Tristan und Isolde marked the end of all romanticism. Here the yearning of the entire 19th century is gathered in one focal point.
This indicates that the opera was a turning point in Western performing arts.
“Everything comes together in opera — ballet, poem, drama and theater,” says Trelinsky in Beijing.
Tristan und Isolde is a “revolution” because after this opera, Western composers changed their approach to the art form, he says.
In most operas and musicals, it is very clear when an aria, duet, chorus, overture, or other ensemble ends, but Wagner blurred these boundaries.
Trelinsky says that unlike in many other romantic stories, in which lovers want to live together, the main characters of the opera’s story hoped to be united in death.
“Falling in love for them was like poison. But this opera shows that love can be as strong as death,” he says.
The director gives a contemporary flavor to the stage and costume designs.
“Although it’s complicated and difficult to understand, the audience will be impressed by this masterpiece, which presents a cinematic feeling,” says Trelinsky.
In March 2016, a version of the opera, produced by the Metropolitan Opera, Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera and Festspielhaus BadenBaden Opera premiered at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, one of Germany’s largest opera and concert houses. It was staged in Warsaw and New York in June and September last year.
American tenor Jay Hunter Morris plays the role of Tristan, with Danish soprano Ann Petersen as Isolde.
“Of all the blessings in my life, my wife, my children and everything, one of the greatest joys is that I can stay in this business long enough to play the role of Tristan,” says Morris, who is known for his performance in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2011–12 series of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
“He (Tristan) is the opposite of who I am. It’s quite challenging to play him,” Morris says of the sadness of the character.
“The music is so beautiful and emotionally challenging (for the tenor).”