20 June – 18 July
Wagner’s monumental anthem to doomed love first stunned the operatic world in 1865. It broke all the rules and still does. There is little stage action, the protagonists are victims rather than agents, and the libretto is filled with abstract introspection and memories of the past. Yet, in the hands of a great creative team, the opera works, and not simply because the music is sublime.
Such a team has come together in this small auditorium for a triumphant revival of the Longborough Festival’s 2015 production. The orchestra of 62 players is tucked under the stage, Bayreuth style, with additional offstage musicians occasionally visible in the balcony. Conductor Anthony Negus CBE draws out the beauty of the score, its complex and precise orchestration reflecting the characters’ inner worlds. At times instruments seem to come out of the ether, as with the miraculous harp which greets the entry of Isolde or the mournful cor anglais of the shepherd’s song. The motifs are not systematic as in The Ring, but the accumulating interwoven melodies become increasingly familiar as the work progresses, holding the audience in their grip as momentum builds to the shattering climax.
Wagner wrote Tristan fast, using the springboard of Gottfried von Strassburg’s 19,000-line medieval romance as an inspiration for his four-hour musical and philosophical masterpiece.
The director is Carmen Jakobi, and she has worked closely with Kimie Nakano to create a world of simple elemental beauty. Lighting by designer Ben Ormerod, is critical, reflecting the dichotomies of sea and land, freedom and imprisonment, night and day, which suffuse the drama.
Peter Wedd inhabits the role of Tristan, moving in a powerful trajectory from a somewhat wooden figure at his first appearance to the anguished lover of the ending. His power and vocal range find full expression in the last two acts. As he staggers, hunched with pain, bare chested, blood seeping from his wound, his servant Kurwenal (Robert Hayward) begs him to rest. But Tristan is the great Germanic romantic hero. Rest is anathema to his being. Fatefully, he opens his arm as his lover approaches, thereby sealing their doom.
Catherine Woodward as Isolde is his match vocally with the huge acrobatic range needed for the part. She is at her best in anger and frenzy. Time stands still in their passionate duets. We know this love will go nowhere, at least not on this earth, but we revel in it all the same. Her Liebestod is both stately and heart-rending, leading inexorably to the gentle orchestral farewell when everything is at last resolved.
The supporting cast, including the chorus, is excellent. Catherine Carby is a warm empathic Brangäne, her well-meant if ill-advised mixing of the potions provoking the havoc that propels the plot. Alistair Miles as King Marke brings regal depth, authority and a wide emotional breadth to role, while Hayward is a strong baritone foil to his master’s heroic tenor.
Unsubsidized opera of this standard does not come cheap. But if you fancy a taste of Wagner, particularly if you have never experienced Tristan, now is your chance. There are a few tickets available before the run finishes on 18th July.
★★★★★ Ros Carne 3 July 2026
Photography credit: Matthew Williams-Ellis
