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[Met Performance] CID:183890
Tristan und Isolde
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, January 21, 1960
Tristan und Isolde (374)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Review 1:
Review of Ronald Eyer in Muscial America
To a familiar cast, including Birgit Nilsson (Isolde), Karl Liebl (Tristan), Walter Cassel (Kurvenal) and Jerome Hines (King Marke), was added a new Brangäne in the young and attractive figure of Christa Ludwig. Miss Ludwig's youth and good looks, as a matter of fact, were the distinguishing factors in her first performance here of that peculiar, catalytic role.
We have grown accustomed to older, more mature Brangänes, some of them obviously older, more mature and even wiser than their bewitched mistresses. But Miss Ludwig clearly was the young handmaiden, subservient and eager to do her princess' bidding, yet determined, in a prettily stubborn way, to save her from self-destruction. It is a different concept which has its own virtues and novel possibilities.
Vocally she was well matched with Miss Nilsson, and her voice, in quality and volume, was that of a true Wagnerian. Her two warnings to the lovers in Act II, which are among the most stunning interpolative effects in all opera, lost something through the location of the singers in relation to each other as provided for in the new production. This was more effective, vocally and visually, in some older productions when Brangäne was dimly visible to the audience at her lookout post on the parapet but out of view of Isolde and Tristan.
Search by season: 1959-60
Search by title: Tristan und Isolde,
Met careers
Tristan und Isolde
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, January 21, 1960
Tristan und Isolde (374)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
- Tristan
- Karl Liebl
- Isolde
- Birgit Nilsson
- Kurwenal
- Walter Cassel
- Brangäne
- Christa Ludwig
- King Marke
- Jerome Hines
- Melot
- Calvin Marsh
- Sailor's Voice
- Charles Anthony
- Shepherd
- Paul Franke
- Steersman
- Louis Sgarro
- Conductor
- Karl Böhm
Review 1:
Review of Ronald Eyer in Muscial America
To a familiar cast, including Birgit Nilsson (Isolde), Karl Liebl (Tristan), Walter Cassel (Kurvenal) and Jerome Hines (King Marke), was added a new Brangäne in the young and attractive figure of Christa Ludwig. Miss Ludwig's youth and good looks, as a matter of fact, were the distinguishing factors in her first performance here of that peculiar, catalytic role.
We have grown accustomed to older, more mature Brangänes, some of them obviously older, more mature and even wiser than their bewitched mistresses. But Miss Ludwig clearly was the young handmaiden, subservient and eager to do her princess' bidding, yet determined, in a prettily stubborn way, to save her from self-destruction. It is a different concept which has its own virtues and novel possibilities.
Vocally she was well matched with Miss Nilsson, and her voice, in quality and volume, was that of a true Wagnerian. Her two warnings to the lovers in Act II, which are among the most stunning interpolative effects in all opera, lost something through the location of the singers in relation to each other as provided for in the new production. This was more effective, vocally and visually, in some older productions when Brangäne was dimly visible to the audience at her lookout post on the parapet but out of view of Isolde and Tristan.
Search by season: 1959-60
Search by title: Tristan und Isolde,
Met careers