Tristan und Isolde

Tristan und Isolde is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It was composed between 1857 and 1859, and received its first production in Munich on June 10, 1865.

Recordings of Tristan und Isolde

Tristan und Isolde has always been acknowledged as one of the greatest operas, and has a long recorded history. In the years before the Second World War, Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior were considered to be the prime interpreters of the lead roles, and mono recordings exist of a number of live performances with this pair directed by conductors such as Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner, Artur Bodanzky and Erich Leinsdorf . Flagstad recorded the part for EMI near the end of her career under Wilhelm Furtwangler, producing a set which is considered a classic recording. Following the war the performances at Bayreuth with Martha Modl and Ramon Vinay under Herbert von Karajan (1952) were highly regarded, and these performances are now available as a live recording. In the 1960s the soprano Birgit Nilsson was considered the major Isolde interpreter, and she was often partnered by the Tristan of Wolfgang Windgassen. Their performances at Bayreuth in 1966 were captured by Deutsche Grammophon, although some collectors prefer the pairing of Nilsson with the Canadian tenor Jon Vickers, available in ?unofficial? recordings from performances in Vienna or Orange. Karajan did not record the opera commercially until 1971, and his set is still controversial for the use of a lighter soprano voice as Isolde, paired with an extremely intense Vickers, and for the unusual balance between orchestra and singers favoured at that time by Karajan. By the 1980s recorded sets by conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, Reginald Goodall and Leonard Bernstein were mostly considered to be important for the interpretation of the conductor, rather than that of the lead performers. The set by Kleiber is notable since Isolde is sung by Margaret Price, who never sang the role on stage.

Related Topics:
Second World War - Kirsten Flagstad - Lauritz Melchior - Thomas Beecham - Fritz Reiner - Artur Bodanzky - Erich Leinsdorf - Wilhelm Furtwangler - Bayreuth - Martha Modl - Ramon Vinay - Herbert von Karajan - Birgit Nilsson - Wolfgang Windgassen - Jon Vickers - Carlos Kleiber - Reginald Goodall - Leonard Bernstein - Margaret Price

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There are many recordings of the opera, some of the most popular being listed below:

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• Thomas Beecham/Fritz Reiner conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior, 1936 ? 1937 (EMI, mono)
• Wilhelm Furtwangler conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra with Kirsten Flagstad and Ludwig Suthaus, 1953 (EMI, mono)
• Karl Bohm conducting the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra with Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen, 1966 (Deutsche Grammophon, stereo)
• Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Helga Dernesch and Jon Vickers, 1972 (EMI, stereo)
• Carlos Kleiber conducting the Dresden Staatskapelle with Margaret Price and Rene Kollo, 1982 (Deutsche Grammophon, stereo)