Tristan und Isolde

Aalto Theater, Essen

06. Januar 2007, 17:00 Uhr

Musikalische Leitung: Stefan Soltesz
Inszinierung von Barrie Kosky


mit Evelyn Herlitzius (Isolde), Jeffrey Dowd (Tristan), Marcel Rosca (Marke), Ildiko Szönyi (Brangäne)

First of all the good news: Ms. Herlitzius is an A-Class Isolde; not only has she the voice, but also the acting talent to fill the stage with this difficult role. She is remarkably angry in the first act, movingly in love in the second, and hopessly desperate in the third, as Isolde demands. Her voice is continuosly full in the high and low register, with barely recognizable vibrato. This performance is a luxury for Essen (Evelyn was Bayreuth´s Brünnhilde in the latest festival Ring productions).


Jeffrey Down is equally in good shape for Tristan, specially of course in the third act. Marcel Rosca has the chance to show off his beautiful voice in the second act; Ms. Szönyi is annoying, as usual (damit, go away!)


I don´t think the production by Barrie Kosky is as good as I have read: the first act (in the ship´s cabin, a cube approx. 1/5 of the stage) was the only one I really enjoyed (even though Ms. Szönyi was most of the time on stage, carrying a bag, because she obviously doesn´t know what to with her hands while singing... Ildiko, take acting lessons!!! ).


The second act takes place on a chic-wallpapared room, it is a tiny cube again which starts to roll when Isolde and Tristan sing the long (and here beautifully performed) love duet. This is a good image to display the couple´s insanity, their crazy love fantasy, and solely concentration on each other. However there is a lamp and a stupid fruit bowl hanging on the ceiling and on the floor respectively. When the room rolls, this items roll with it, so at the end of the movement the lamp is on the floor and the bowl on the ceiling. The fruits don´t fall though, and they spoil the whole idea of the scene, giving then the sense that the room was really moving (when Marke enters the room the bowl is still on the ceiling, with fruits levitating). Another problem in this act was of course Ms. Szönyi, proving again that she doesn´t have any acting talents.




The third act is an anti-climax. The cube again displays something like a room of a socialist block building in Eisenhüttenstadt, where Tristan is being hailed.

Outside of it the stage is lighted for the first time, showing some plastic goats being carried away by four sheperds. Now the problem here is the liebestod. Isolde sings on the border of the stage outside the cube, which at the same time is going backwards. She ends (isn´t she supposed to be dead?) and walks to the back, where Tristan is lying. In order to give the couple the chance to die together, Isolde spoils the effect of her death, and the production hints to a kind of happy end, while showing the lovers lying together while the curtain falls.