As part of the Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier To compose Tristan and Isolde, Wagner drew inspiration in particular from a Breton legend and a poem by Gottfried von Strasbourg, as well as from his own love affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of his benefactor and patron. Mathilde herself had written several sensual, dreamlike poems: Wagner set them to music under the title Wesendonck-Lieder before embarking on the composition of his opera. Everything has been said about Tristan, about the famous chord in the Prelude, about the duet in the second act where Wagner quotes both Novalis and Schopenhauer, about Isolde’s death, which culminates in an ineffable Nirvana. Musically, the score recalls Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette; the music of Tristan and Isolde ventures beyond tonality, while that of the other characters is less ambiguous in order to underscore the irresistible rise of love. “Even today, I am still searching through all the arts for a work of such dangerous seduction, of such sweet, such terrible infinity as Tristan. All the mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci lose their magic at the first note of Tristan,” Nietzsche himself admitted. Under the direction of the new music director of the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, an outstanding cast is brought together here: Anja Kampe sang Isolde at Glyndebourne, Stuart Skelton lent his voice to Tristan at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Kwangchul Youn is a regular at Bayreuth. Tristan: an opera of the night for an unforgettable evening in Montpellier. THE PROGRAM RICHARD WAGNER Tristan and Isolde, opera in 3 acts Concert Version Libretto by Richard Wagner based on a medieval Celtic legend By reservation
Event from the official Montpellier agenda; venue: Office de Tourisme Montpellier; address: Opéra Berlioz, 34000, Montpellier.
Source: Agenda Montpellier