|
Back
“Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” Frankfurt
Oper Frankfurt
03/22/2026 - & March 28, April 3, 6, 11*, 2026
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Marco Jentzsch (Tristan), Miina-Liisa Värelä (Isolde), Andreas Bauer Kanabas (King Marke), Claudia Mahnke (Brangäne), Nicholas Brownlee (Kurwenal), Taehan Kim (Melot), Theo Lebow (Shepherd), Pete Thanapat (Helmsman)
Chor der Oper Frankfurt, Alvaro Corral Matute (Chorus Master), Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Thomas Guggeis (Conductor)
Katharina Thoma (director), Orest Tichonov (Revival Director), Olaf Winter (Lighting Designer), Johannes Leiacker (Set Designer), Irina Bartels (Costume Designer), Mareike Wink (Dramaturge)
M. Jentzsch, M.-L. Värelä (© Barbara Aumüller)
Any director of Tristan has a major concern to deal with: how to stage a work of ideas and philosophies and very little action without it turning into a concert performance and possibly even grinding to a halt. Katharina Thoma’s 2019 production, well revived here by Orest Tichonov, uses few props and little scenery and focuses the attention on the characters, but I felt that it gave me nothing particularly new, just basic narrative action to relate the story and some relative abstraction to keep the mind focussed on Wagner’s underlying concepts. Maybe that is all one needs, but I wanted something a bit more to match the musical riches of the performance.
In Act I, a large platform was dropped slowly down to hang just above the empty stage and upon was a rowing boat which seemed to be Tristan and Isolde’s “safe place”, within which their metaphysical world existed and made sense. Outside the boat and off the platform they were in the real world and its consequent judgement and punishment. It was a good enough idea, but the platform did swing from side to side considerably at times as they walked on it and I spent as much time worrying that they would bounce off it as I did concentrating on what they were actually singing. In Act II, the platform became a vertical dividing wall, with the lovers on one side, Brangäne calling her warnings on the other, and in one successfully dramatic moment it became a steeply tilted slide to which Tristan and Isolde clung by their fingertips, trying not to lose their grip: perhaps an obvious but nonetheless effective visual metaphor. By Act III, the wall had splintered into a large pile of rocks on which Tristan raved deliriously and ultimately died. As Isolde sang her ‘Liebestod’, the whole mass slid slowly to the back of the stage which opened to swallow it, leaving her alone. It generally worked well, but there were some clumsy moments, not least Brangäne gingerly clambering down off the rocks as the ‘Liebestod’ started: not really the moment to distract an audience which is trying to wallow in the existential angst of Isolde’s transfiguration but finds itself watching a mezzo trying to make a discreet dismount from a boulder before awkwardly creeping off the brightly lit stage.
Thomas Guggeis conducted and I cannot praise his reading sufficiently. The Prelude was very slow and at first I wondered with we were going to sit through what one might politely call a Goodall sense of spaciousness and still be there after midnight. But Guggeis is a conductor of drama and as soon as we were into the opera itself it moved at a good pace and he whipped up a storm. He drew the most incredibly saturated sound from the orchestra, it really was sumptuous, but never soupy and always translucent. He opened the traditional cuts, which did make for a long Act II, but maintained a sense of pace. The orchestra hit greatness and I can’t single out any particular section for praise as they were all exceptional, though I must note that there was not one fluff from the brass all night.
Marco Jentzsch’s Tristan didn’t hit such great heights. He is tall and good looking and has a fine and pleasing tenor, but I would rather hear him singing something lighter – I suspect that Lohengrin would suit him – and despite his detailed acting in Act III, I found him slightly faceless onstage. Having said which, he lasted the course, which is more than some Tristans I’ve seen, and didn’t make one ugly sound all evening, which in itself is an achievement. I would just like more heft.
We certainly had heft from Miina-Liisa Värelä’s Isolde. Her soprano is warm and rich in its lower and middle reaches, but though her high notes are accurate they feel slightly tacked on to the rest of the voice – well‑judged in placement rather than flung out with abandon, hence the Narration and Curse were not as blood‑curdling as one might like. But she has indefinable star quality, maybe it is confidence, and the ability to make you believe and care in what she is singing. Her final moments were heart‑stopping and she sounded as fresh at the end of the evening as at the start, quite remarkable. She is a vivid and expressive actor and wore her costumes with aplomb. She is soon to be Munich’s Brünnhilde in their unfolding Ring Cycle and I imagine the outlying operas will suit her very well, Siegfried I am not so sure. We shall see.
Her Wotan in that Ring is Nicholas Brownlee, who has a stupendous baritone and the stage presence to match, and who made much of Kurwenal. His love for Tristan was moving to watch and he charted the man’s emotional ups and downs with fervour and ultimately anguish. Claudia Mahnke was a grave Brangäne who I felt was slightly lost in Act I but whose Act II warnings were sumptuously voiced and in tune, unlike so many. Andreas Bauer Kanabas almost stole the whole show as Marke – how often can one say that – his dark bass so opulent, his pacing of the text so precise, and with immense gravitas. Why he is not a world superstar I do not know. And a shout out to Taehan Kim’s Melot, also giving notice of a strong baritone – obviously a young singer to watch.
Francis Muzzu
|
