Tristan und Isolde
Since the 1990s, Christoph Marthaler and his congenial stage and costume designer Anna Viebrock have caused a sensation with highly musical and atmospheric productions of plays and operas. It was only a matter of time, then, before this directing team was also invited to the Bayreuth Festival. Marthaler's style of radical deceleration proved ideally suited to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in this production – with Viebrock's sober yet poetic sets – unveiled in 2005. In the 2009 revival documented here, Robert Dean Smith and Iréne Theorin were joined in the title roles by Robert Holl, one of the great basses of his generation, who sang the role of King Marke.
Cast
Robert Dean Smith
Tristan
Iréne Theorin
Isolde
Michelle Breedt
Brangäne
Robert Holl
King Marke
Jukka Rasilainen
Kurwenal
Ralf Lukas
Melot
Clemens Bieber
A young sailor
Arnold Bezuyen
A shepherd
Martin Snell
A steersman
Peter Schneider
Himself - Musikalische Leitung
