Dirigent Leif Segerstam Text/libretto Richard Wagner Regi Hans-Peter Lehmann Ljus Linus Fellbom Scenografi och kostym Olaf Zombeck Tristan Thomas Sunnegårdh Kung Marke Lennart Forsén Isolde Nina Stemme Kurwenal Gunnar Lundberg d.y. Melot Magnus Kyhle Brangäne Martina Dike En herde Ulrik Qvale En styrman John Erik Eleby En ung sjöman Ulrik Qvale Medverkan Herrar ur Kungliga Operans kör Medverkan Kungliga Hovkapellet
Company The Royal Opera Venue Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London Performance status Revival Director Herbert Wernicke Conductor Bernard Haitink Chorus Director Terry Edwards Concert Master Vasko Vassilev Sailor Timothy Robinson Isolde Gabriele Schnaut Brangäne Petra Lang Kurwenal Alan Titus Tristan Jon Fredric West Melot Christopher Booth-Jones King Marke Peter Rose A Shepherd Peter Auty A Steersman Graeme Broadbent Tristan and Isolde as caged hamsters There’s something about Herbert Wernicke’s staging of Tristan und Isolde, the first of the Royal Opera’s new productions this season, that reminds me irresistibly of hamsters. Breeding the rodents is a tricky business; they don’t get on very well, and getting a pair to mate has to be approached carefully, bringing them together just for a few minutes to do the business and then separating them before they can kill each other. Wernicke treats these most famous of operatic lovers like that too: his set (he’s done everything, including the lighting) consists of two colour-coded boxes - blue for the boy, blood red for the girl - and Tristan and Isolde are never allowed to leave these domains, as if close contact would cause them to tear each other limb from limb. Even in the second act the hamsters - sorry, the lovers - never approach within 10 yards of each other, never exchange glances; their boxes move suggestively together and the lighting becomes more elaborate as they get worked up, but that’s about it. ...