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Donald Runnicles opened his tenure at the San Francisco Opera by conducting two ring cycles in 1990, which led to his appointment as musical director in 1992. His expiring contract won’t be renewed in 2009, yet he’ll still conduct the Ring currently in production for 2010-2011: he and Wagner go together.
So it was no surprise that last night’s performance of Tristan and Isolde turned out as a magistral musical display: from the prelude to the final curtain drop, Runnicles coaxed a splendid performance out of the orchestra. The prelude, a slowly awakening crescendo, opening with the Tristan chord (which we mention only because it has its own wikipedia entry) and its delayed resolution, building up slowly in little increments into a full fledged sonic fury, set up the atmosphere for the evening: powerfull, tormented, the music turns and paces in larger and larger concentric circles, repeating and expanding the same motifs, small chromatic step by small chromatic step, bottling up energy until it reaches its explosive climax. Runnicles hold the rudder firmly and found new details, new colors, new textures in the melodic repetitions every time.
The orchestra as a whole deserves kudos, but we’ll give a special mention to harpist Olga Rakitchenkov for her beautiful support of the love duet in Act II, and to English horn Janet Popesco Archibald, whose backstage prelude of Act III was a marvel of lament and sorrow.
Pictures courtesy of SF Opera/Terrence McCarthy
Deserving compliments as well: the whole singing cast. Making their San Francisco debuts, British mezzo-soprano Jane Irwin and bass Boaz Daniel, respectively Brangäne and Kurewanl, she loyal confidant for Isolde and he for Tristan. Both displayed the required vocal prowess to soar over the Wagnerian orchestration. She has a warm, rounded tone, and he has a forceful, confident delivery.
Kristinn Sigmundsson, the cold blooded killer in Rigoletto, came back as the wounded father-figure of King Marke, betrayed by his wife Isolde and his nephew Tristan: the Icelandic bass gave us all the stages of grieving in one fine performance: righteous anger, bottomless sadness, and eventually forgiveness.
Forgiveness for Tristan and Isolde of course, the cursed pair bound first by hate, then by the promise of death, and, when the poison they’re about to ingest is substituted with a love potion by Brangäne, by an all-consuming passion.
Christine Brewer sang Isolde on an opera stage for the first time last night, and the role belongs to her. Christine does not move much (and Achille’s injury probably did not help), but fast-paced this opera is not. Each act is built along a long wait: wait for the boat to reach the shore in Act I, wait for the night to end in Act II, wait for Isolde to arrive in Act III. It is a deliberate, ondulating pace, not a rush till the end. Also, she tends to get out of character when the lights go off, even though she’s still on stage, and was rather expressionless when in character. But the lady can sing. Her voice, with a slight metallic hue to it, knived through the waves of sound that Runnicles was launching at us.
Thomas Moser surprised us as Tristan, based on the last impression he made upon us. He was brilliant yesterday: majestic, he conveyed the heroic strength of the character, with the voice to match. And his acting chops are a bit more convinving: when caught in an adulterous bout by Marke in Act II, Moser looked back at the tree stump he was just wooing Isolde on, and the look on his face said: this stump is where I now get my head cut off.
The relative lack of physical intimacy between Tristan and Isolde, outside of the intricate combination of their voices, actually does not hurt the show, but emphasizes the reading that they actually love the fire which burns in them more than they love each other. They sure call each other traitor a lot for a pair of lovebirds.
The set was supposed to be Seattle’s production by Francesca Zambello. Instead, due to technical difficulties, it is the LA set by David Hockney, a slightly cartoonish design with bright colors that you would expect more from the artist known as Prince, purple rain period. We had seen this production in 1997 in LA, and were surprised that the set still surprised us. There is a convoluted purple couch in the first Act, which matches the velvety costume of Tristan in Act II as he returns for the hunt. We wondered if he went couch hunting, and now was wearing the skin. We almost had a wardrobe malfunction as well, as Isolde left quickly a Tristan who was still stepping on her robe. It snapped back into the decent position, and we were just left wondering: what if?
Tristan and Isolde
Remaining performances: Tue. October 10, 7 pm, Sat. October 14, 7 pm, Wed. October 18, 7 pm, Sun. October 22, 1 pm, Fri. October 27, 7 pm.
Box office: 684-3330.
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Don't you mean "the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince?"
Yep, the purple little guy. I could not find that love symbol in my special html character stash.