Wagner - Tristan Und Isolde (Forbis/Charbonnet/Reiter/Dohmen/Olivier Py) [2006]

This is excellent.In Act 1, Isolde's bitter ferocity gets increasingly compelling, and Tristan's despairing numbness lets him plausibly succumb to their intended suicide pact. The switched potions indicates how much dramatic irony can be expected from that point onwards.Act 2 is especially successful in two ways. One, the lovers' apparent discovery of a different sense of reality is heightened by the move between rooms on stage. Two, their meditation on the different senses in which they might be able to die - from the third part of their duet beginning with Tristan's "Let me die..." to the point where Marke discovers them - is tenderly moving.The opening of Act 3 is quite stunning - what seems to be a hazy sunrise emerges gradually; it takes on shadowy markings like a skull; then it becomes clear it is the head of the shepherd, the source of the mournful tune which Tristan hears as his destined suffering.The conclusion is consistent with an impression - building up throughout, in parallel with the increased reverence Brangaene and Kurwenal show for them - that Tristan and Isolde confuse themselves with the deity of love which possesses them. That is one plausible interpretation of their extraordinary passion for a completely different way of existing.

A winderful experience