Daniel Barenboim’s Wagnerian credentials are unanimously acknowledged, and his Wagner performances with the Staatskapelle Berlin are seen by many as reference in this repertoire. Even if I had my share of below-average performances with this Argentinian conductor in this repertoire, I have never heard a performance of Tristan und Isolde conducted by him that seemed less than excellent. This is the work by Wagner best served by his abilities as a conductor, and the fact that it sounds different every time I hear him conduct it makes the experience even more compelling. Today, in the Schiller-Theater, I have come to the conclusion that his understanding of this score’s structure is so complete that he is entirely at ease to test its limits: he can make it extremely slow, sometimes a little bit faster, usually very rich in orchestral sound, but sometimes chamber-like in lean sonoroties – it does not matter, it always sounds coherent, clear, meaningful… and usually very intense. Today’s performance started off with a dense, almost heavy prelude, yet transparent in a way that makes one particularly alert for Wagner’s shifts of instrumental color. After that, his main concern seemed to be helping his soloists out, turning around a very transparent yet rich sound that could instantly become more classically “Wagnerian” whenever his singers would benefit from being “drowned”. Also, the need for many extra breathing points involved a basically slow beat, with the many “col canto” episodes where singers were adapting their lines to get to the end of a phrase in truly adventurous manner. In any case, before I can speak of the overall impression of this performance, I have to speak of the singers in the title roles.
Waltraud Meier is something of Barenboim’s “official” Isolde for more than 20 years. When she shifted from mezzo and made it her parade role, she could indeed sing it better than some singers whose natural voice is indeed that of a soprano. But that did not last as long as she could have wished. Soon, she became notably variable in this part, in a good day still sounding her youthful best, until it has finally settled into a business of adaptation of the vocal lines as written by Wagner. At this point of her career, the audience is suppose to make a trade off between insight and faithfulness. I would say that, this evening, considering her real Fach and her age, she was in good voice: middle and low register sounded clean, firm and well focused, but high notes existed by means of various degrees of squeezing, many of which landing below true pitch. Then there were many notes shortened, hinted at, spoken or left unsung. She is an extraordinarily persuasive artist with illuminating ideas and most often than not got away with her make-do, but her interpretation now is so heavily underlined that it involves very little legato and a pecking-at-notes phrasing that could pass for Sprechgesang at moments. This had a very curious effect: the very lean vocal production, the avoidance of forte and fortissimo, the self-explanatory phrasing (and her miraculous young-looking appearance) made her Isolde believably adolescent in attitude. The fact that Barenboim gave her a lighter orchestra also had the effect of turning down the profoundness and ponderousness. Since her Tristan too is fond of an almost operetta-hero lyric style, portamento included, and can produce a boyish tonal quality, their act I sounded unusually matter-of-fact, both singers native speakers delivering quite provocatively their dialogues. Some might dislike the Pride and Prejudice approach, but I am increasingly convinced that this opera doesn’t need the extra servings of seriousness usually applied to it, which have only the dubious benefit of making it less believable and more obscure. In this atmosphere, act II had its splashes of Romeo and Juliet, when Isolde smilingly teases Brangäne for feeling guilty for using the love potion instead poison in the end of the previous act.
In the last twelve months I’ve seen Peter Seiffert twice – and in very good shape – as Florestan and Bacchus. This seems to confirm that Tristan is not really his role. To deal with the heavy vocal lines, he often resorts to an almost open-toned approach to high high f’s and g’s and pushes a lot. Before he got tired (some 10 minutes before O sink hernieder), one would say impetuosity or fervor instead of laboriousness and despair. Act III tested him sorely, Tristan’s predicament secondary to the fact that this was this tenor on stage making violence against his vocal folds.
Ekaterina Gubanova is, as always, a reliable Brangäne, today not in her best voice, though. Roman Trekel is a boorish Kurwenal, which is a valid approach, but he too gets tired in act III. Stephen Milling finds the role of King Marke a bit high and heavy, and yet he showed ability to create Innigkeit when necessary.
Harry Kupfer’s 2000 production is prone to generalization and can be challenging to singers not in their youthful prime. The tenor was visibly uncomfortable with it. Some moments, especially those who involve singers crawling, are particularly awkward.
I HEAR VOICES 
Thanks! I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with this one.
I’ve just relistened to an old radio broadcast I have of Die Walküre from Bayreuth in 2000 with Sinopoli, Waltraud Meier (Sieglinde) and Plácido Domingo (Siegmund). Meier is awful. Her strangulated vocal production in the middle register is just plain ugly. I understand her magnetism from the films I’ve seen of her and I love her acting, but from a purely aural point of view she’s is almost intolerable in the soprano repertory. A great Ortrud, no doubt, a fine Kundry, but Sieglinde, uhuh, and Isolde NO! A very over-rated singer if you ask me, but a great actress.
That was waspish of me, I apologize. Listening to Sinopoli’s one and only Ring cycle from Bayreuth I was angered by the dearth of top-drawer singers at his disposal. Meier and Domingo were part of the Star system that has so ruined opera performance and recording in my experience. Domingo sang beautifully but, as usual in Wagner especially, he was Domingo singing Siegmund’s music, not Siegmund.
Meier was a great mezzo-soprano. There is no finer Fricka than her performance for Haitink’s EMI Walküre. And her Waltraute, Ortrud and Kundry are in a league pretty much their own. But her voice deteriorated quickly once she took on Isolde. I suppose that was the nerve that was struck by your review of her in that role in Tokyo.
As Jerold wrote, thank you for enduring it for us.
Hi, Jeffrey, first, thanks for your comments! And the Isolde was in Berlin. She is scheduled to sing Sieglinde in Tokyo next year.
I would say WM sang beautiful Isoldes (such as in Munich with Mehta on video) and Sieglindes (such as with Muti on video), even with the questionable approach to high notes. These performances were intelligently and sensitively conceived and I enjoyed them very much. But her technique was not truly up to it and time only exposed this problem more clearly. Now there is so much cheating and adaptation in her singing of these roles that I think that it just makes a bad service to her reputation. Many singers tried roles that worked for them only for a while but were more realistic in realizing when the time was done for them (such as Christa Ludwig and her soprano roles or Ramon Vinay and his tenor roles).
In any case, WM is such a special artist that I am ready to make concessions for her, but this Isolde thing is going dangerously close of becoming embarrassing, some sort of vanity project. Considering her voice is still in very good shape for mezzo roles, why not singing them again?!
I was in the performance of 26.10. I think the reaction of the audience tells you all. 45 seconds of complete silence after WM finished singing the Liebestod. Who cares about a few weak high notes in such a context.
Hello, WK! Thanks for commenting. You have probably read above that the issue was not “a few weak high notes” and that Ms. Meier’s artistry has been taken in consideration. I would take silence after a beautifully conducted performance of Tristan und Isolde as the normal reaction to listening to the last bars of such deeply expressive music. That has been my experience so far, even when one dislikes a singer or two in the cast. In any case, we haven’t seen the same performance.
However, I would like to observe that Richard Wagner wrote every note in the score of Tristan and Isolde. So I ask you: how many missed/shortened/off-tune notes should there be before someone is actually entitled to _care_?! One, ten, 100, all of them?! I agree that minor blunders shouldn’t compromise the appreciation of a performance of serious musical and dramatic purpose. But when one goes on stage – on a regular basis – knowing beforehand that some of Wagner’s music is not going to be performed because you lack the means to do it but still believe that your contribution is more relevant than that of Wagner himself (i.e., the music he wrote), then I am afraid that I indeed believe that the priorities there are rather twisted. But that’s only my opinion, as always.