canbelto Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 (edited) I saw several BA'ers at last night's Tristan und Isolde. I'd recommend catching it in HD, definitely. Nina Stemme, Stuart Skelton, Ekaterina Gubanova and Rene Pape are superb. http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-tristan-hits-right-chords.html Edited October 1, 2016 by canbelto Link to comment
Birdsall Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 I was there and agree with Canbelto! It is rare to hear even a decent Isolde and Nina Stemme is very good with just very minor issues almost not worth mentioning because she is great in the bulk of the role. In her Liebestod I would have loved a stronger "Welt-Atems..." (forte) and longer held "Lust" (piano....last word).....but that is being picky when most of the role was sung excellently, in my opinion. Pape was terrific also. He showed how it is done. The production is a bit "wacky," but I sort of liked it. It created action as much as you can in this opera I joke is "a 5 hour opera where nothing happens!" Link to comment
canbelto Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 Bart, I think Isolde lies in a sweet spot in Stemme's current voice. She's 53 and the upper register isn't completely steady but the middle register remain warm and firm. I think the Met did justice to this opera (and they haven't really done much Wagner in recent years. Going for quality over quantity with Wagner is something I can get behind though.) Link to comment
Recommended Posts