[Met Performance] CID:149120



Tristan und Isolde
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 11, 1948 Matinee Broadcast





Tristan und Isolde (331)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Tristan
Lauritz Melchior

Isolde
Helen Traubel

Kurwenal
Herbert Janssen

Brang?ne
Blanche Thebom

King Marke
Dezs? Ernster

Melot
Emery Darcy

Sailor's Voice
John Garris

Shepherd
Leslie Chabay

Steersman
Philip Kinsman


Conductor
Fritz Busch


Director
Dino Yannopoulos

Set Designer
Joseph Urban

Costume Designer
Mathilde Castel-Bert





Tristan und Isolde received seven performances this season
Traubel's costumes were designed by Adrian.

Review 1:

Review of Jerome D. Bohm in the New York Herald Tribune

"Tristan und Isolde"

Traubel, Thebom, Melchior Heard at Metropolitan

The music dramas of Wagner continue to be the works upon which the Metropolitan Opera Association is concentrating its most impressive performances this season. Yesterday afternoon's "Tristan and Isolde" was, in its essentials, quite as satisfying as last Thursday night's "Goetterdaemmerung." It is indeed fortunate for the German master's devotees that the exceptional singers and conductors demanded for compelling realization of his creations are at hand, whereas those required for equally convincing presentations of Italian and French operas are not.

As Isolde, Miss Traubel revealed, as she had last week in her assumption of the "G?tterd?mmerung" Br?nnhilde, remarkable control of her gleaming soprano voice, investing the music of her arduous role with singing which was not only magnificent as sheer sound, but of the utmost expressivity. Not often does one hear it delivered with such a wealth of nuance and color, with such enchanting lyricism, as well as with such stirring dramatic impact. In her acting Miss Traubel wisely adhered to movements and gestures of the utmost simplicity, depending largely on her voice to convey the manifold aspects of Isolde's nature.

Miss Thebom's Brang?ne has grown immeasurably as a dramatic conception. The young mezzo-soprano in other years showed a tendency to overact the role of Isolde's companion. Yesterday her portrayal was a completely matured one, every detail of which was dramatically cogent and visually arresting. Vocally, too, she was at her best; the high tessitura of the role easily encompassed, phrases in the first act which most singers of the role project laboriously, and were freely and sumptuously voiced. To this listener it seemed, however, that Miss Thebom was placed too far offstage to permit Brang?ne's warning call from the tower in the second act to exert its magic. An effect of being heard from the distance is, of course, required here by the action, but even a singer with so powerful a voice as Miss Thebom's cannot accomplish the impossible. Only her highest tones were sufficiently audible.

Tristan remains Mr. Melchior's most telling role. His knightly demeanor in the first and second acts, his poignant characterization of the delirious, dying hero make their effect even when his vocalism falls short of his intentions. There was much that was affecting in his delivery of his music, especially in those portions of the last act in which he utilized the full strength of his tenor voice, but his half-voice singing, which was always the weakest facet of his vocal equipment, was even foggier than usual yesterday.

Some of the afternoon's finest, most touching singing and acting was Mr. Janssen's as Kurwenal. Mr. Ernster's King Marke, while none too steady tonally, had its moments of vocal plenitude and apposite pathos. Uncommonly sympathetic was the shepherd of Mr. Chabay.

Much of the deeply moving quality of the performance must be ascribed to Mr. Busch's discourse of the orchestral score, in which unfailing musical discernment was matched by the ability to elicit from his musicians the constantly shifting sound textures essential to a vital conveyance of the seethingly passionate, poetic and tragic attributes of this still unaccompanied product of Wagner's genius.



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