Word: tristan
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...France in the eleventh century largely as a reaction to the drabness and poverty of life at the time and to the oppressive rigidity of the feudal system. It eventually would become a justification for sexual activity outside the normative channels of marriage (see, for instance, the story of Tristan and Isolde or of Lancelot and Guinevere), something that might have motivated its subsequent popularity...
Strauss' early masterpiece, finished by the time he was 25, was written under the spell of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, and takes its cues from the tristesse (and orchestrational largesse) of that monster. In the version Strauss sought to depict, it is not a statue-come-to protagonist's own self loathing that brings on the brimstone. You can look forward to otherworldly brass writing and overwrought, saturated textures. For a first course, it is heavy fare...
...conductor James Levine rightly calls a "phenomenon," Heppner is the first singer in years who has the vocal heft needed for the massive Wagnerian roles that were once owned by Lauritz Melchior. No operatic appearances in 1998 were as eagerly awaited as Heppner's Lohengrin at the Met and Tristan und Isolde at the Seattle Opera, and the critical verdict was passionately positive. Small wonder: the Wagner excerpts included on his latest CD, Ben Heppner Sings German Romantic Opera (RCA Victor Red Seal), are by turns warmly lyrical and resplendently powerful...
...romance, it left something to be desired. there was none of the mythic sweep of Tristan and Isolde, not a glimmer of the mystical intensity of Heathcliff and Catherine, nothing akin to Romeo and Juliet's tragic inevitability. But the affair between Bill and Monica--if affair is the appropriate word for an "inappropriate relationship"--has something to teach us anyway, in unexpected ways...
...from at least 44 states and 13 foreign countries are planning to fly to Seattle to see two of the biggest young voices in the business, Canadian tenor Ben Heppner and English soprano Jane Eaglen, make their double debut in the Seattle Opera's new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. But the prospect of finding a fresh pair of singers capable of tackling Wagner's most vocally demanding roles is only part of what's drawing opera lovers to the Pacific Northwest. This Tristan is being staged by Francesca Zambello, whose penchant for scandalizing stodgy opera buffs with...