It seems that new recordings
of Tristan und Isolde are in
vogue at present, in spite of the crisis
for recorded operas. Last autumn DG
released a live recording from the Vienna
State Opera, led by Christian Thielemann.
Earlier this year came a recording on
Titanic from a live concert in Sofia
with American soloists and conducted
by Glen Cortese. Now comes this studio
recording on Naxos with Swedish forces
under Leif Segerstam. Later in 2005
EMI are releasing what is supposed to
be their last studio recording of an
opera, a Tristan with Placido
Domingo and Nina Stemme. Moreover DG
have just reissued their early digital
recording conducted by Carlos Kleiber
and with René Kollo and Margaret
Price as the protagonists. And there
are several others available, most notably
Furtwängler’s mono version from
1952 with Flagstad and Karl Böhm’s
live Bayreuth performance from 1966
with Birgit Nilsson and a dream cast
that will probably never be surpassed.
The is a plenitude to choose from. Can
a newcomer, with more or less a house-ensemble
from a minor opera house at the periphery
of Europe, compete with the "big
boys"?
Let’s start with clearing
away some prejudices. The Royal Swedish
Opera may not have the biggest opera
house in the world and jet-set singers
don’t shuttle in and out of the house.
Instead they have kept the old system
with a permanent ensemble which makes
it possible to create well worked-through
performances. The ensemble today, including
the Opera Chorus and, not least, the
Orchestra, have high standards, which
I have reported on in several reviews
for SeenandHeard lately. Stockholm has
a very long Wagner tradition and many
important Wagner singers have been members
of the ensemble and also returned regularly
as guests. Names like Birigt Nilsson,
Berit Lindholm, Set Svanholm, Helge
Brilioth, Gösta Winbergh and Sigurd
Björling (no relation to Jussi)
who was Bayreuth’s first Wotan after
the war, come to mind. And on this recording
we also have Leif Segerstam to reckon
with, former chief conductor and music
director at the house, who has made
two opera recordings in Stockholm for
Naxos before, both live: Die tote
Stadt and Wozzeck. Both met
with critical acclaim. He has sometimes
been accused of idiosyncratic interpretations,
but whatever objections critics can
have I don’t think anyone ever has thought
him dull. I have heard him numerous
times, since the 1970s, in concert,
in the opera house. He conducted a very
fine Walküre at the Finnish National
Opera some years ago; I have even seen
him dancing tango while conducting!
No need for him to do that in Tristan,
but there is a rhythmic vitality permeating
this performance, keeping the the drama
unfolding relentlessly until the inescapable
end. That is not to say that it is hard-driven.
Segerstam is enormously sensitive to
nuance, in which this score abounds.
The first act prelude is a fine example.
He sculpts the music in one long arc,
from the almost inaudible first notes
to the climax and then back to near
inaudibility again. As a listener one
dares not breathe for fear of breaking
the spell. And he ensures excellent
playing from every department of the
orchestra. In particular the strings
have an enchanting sheen that is on
a par with the best opera house orchestras.
All through the 3½ hours of the drama
he is flexible to the needs of the action.
He pushes forward, he holds back. In
act II he sees to it that both the chamber
music feeling and the ecstasy get their
due. Listen for instance to the passion
in the love duet, the jubilant strings
in the build-up before O ew’ge Nacht
... (a couple of minutes into CD2
track 12). To my mind Segerstam is on
a par with the very best Tristan
conductors. The orchestral sound,
as recorded here, at first seemed a
bit brass-heavy, the strings being strangely
recessed, especially when listening
through head-phones. But through the
loudspeakers and with the volume turned
up an extra notch, it was alright. And
although Segerstam never holds back
in the climaxes he never drenches the
singers which is a feat in itself.
The male department
of the Opera Chorus sing well, what
little there is to sing. Of the minor
parts Ulrik Qvale, whose voice is the
first we hear when the curtain rises,
is a lyrical, nuanced Young sailor and
later, in the last act, he is a suitably
pastoral Shepherd. Magnus Kyhle, singing
Melot, has developed a wobble in his
voice, which isn’t too unappropriate
for this character and John Erik Eleby
delivers his few lines as the Helmsman
with authority. He might have been a
better Kurwenal than Gunnar Lundberg,
even though he is more bass than baritone.
Lundberg is eager and keen with his
words but he can’t quite muster the
nobility of tone that should be a hallmark
of Kurwenal. In the third act, where
he has most of his singing, he improves
and he sings with great warmth and feeling
at Lebst du noch? (CD3 track
7). Lennart Forsén, whom I praised
in The Royal Opera’s Eugene Onegin
recently, has a rock-steady, evenly
produced, warm bass, and his assumption
of King Marke’s role is first-class,
apart from a couple of instances when
he pushes his noble voice too much.
Martina Dike, the Brangäne, has
been one of the Royal Opera’s most shining
stars of late. She was an impressive
Adalgisa in Norma a couple of
years ago and her Eboli in Don Carlo
this spring was stunning. Here her quick
vibrato is more prominent than I remember
from live occasions, but it is still
a beautiful voice, brighter and younger
than that of Isolde, and there is a
good deal of dramatic singing, e.g.
CD1 tracks 7 and 8, and later, in act
II, the scene with Isolde (CD2 track
6). Her solo in the great love duet,
Einsam wachend in der Nacht (CD2
track 9), is also well sung but with
a more insistent vibrato.
This opera stands and
falls with the protagonists and at present
Stockholm can’t offer a homegrown love
couple. Nina Stemme is one of the few
great Isoldes of the day, but she was
already contracted for the EMI recording
and so Naxos had to import two German
singers. [but see
review of live performance from
Stockholm] Hedwig Fassbender
started her career as a lyric mezzo-soprano
but took the step into the dramatic
soprano Fach in 2001, when she
sang her first Isolde. Her voice retains
some mezzo characteristics in her middle
register, where she has something of
Flagstad’s timbre. She has a good supply
of power and can sail above the orchestra,
not quite as effortlessly and laserbeam-like
as Nilsson did in her hey-day, but who
else could? Fassbender’s voice is sometimes
a bit uneven, occasionally shrill, which
also makes her more vulnerable. And
she is sensitive to words. It pays dividends
to have a singer with years of experience
in this taxing role. Take the scene
with Isolde and Brangäne in act
I (CD1 track 5). A minute or so into
the scene Isolde sings her monologue
Den hab ich wohl vernommen and near
the end, at 4:45, we reach the magic
moment when she sings er sah mir
in die Augen. This is outstanding
Wagner singing! And then, continuing
on track 6, Sein Lob hörtest
du eben, strong and sensitive and
ending her lines with a resigned Nun
dien’ ich dem Vasallen! At the first
encounter with Tristan (CD1 track 10)
her tone is steadier, clearer and the
second act love duet is full of good
things. Her love-death in the last act
(CD3 track 12) is a fine example of
restrained, sensitive singing, an inward,
magical start and a wonderful warm tone
at wie er leuchtet, stern-umstrahlet
(1:00), from where she builds up to
the climax in des Welt-Atems wehendem
All (4:38) and from there she tones
everything down, ending on a true pianissimo
höchste Lust! It is all
done with great feeling, and a worthy
end of the opera. I only wish she could
have tamed her occasional shrill high
notes and the little irritating beat
on the last note. I am afraid the Tristan,
Wolfgang Millgram, doesn’t quite scale
these heights. His first entrance displays
a baritonal sound, quite common among
Tristans, but it is also a dry voice
with a tendency to a beat and his phrasing
tends to be four-square. He improves,
though, and in act II his voice is steadier,
He doesn’t bark as he did in the first
act, shows a great deal of glow and
no one can deny the power and the stamina
(CD2 track 7). An in the lovesong proper
O sink’ hernieder, Nacht der Liebe
CD2 track 8), his voice adopts a
certain bloom which I couldn’t have
dreamed about in the first act. In act
III his two long scenes (CD3 track 4
and track 6) offer much impressive heroic
singing and also his death scene (track
9) is full of drama and tragedy. But
while I admire the physical power I
can’t say that his is a particularly
lovable sound. Still, I prefer him to
a more lyrical voice, screaming his
way through this super-human part.
So there we are: a
very well conducted and played performance,
a bit unevenly sung but convincingly
acted. It is on three budget-priced
discs, so for the cost of one fullprice
disc we get the whole drama, 3½ hours
long. There is a synopsis but no sung
texts. These are available as PDF files
at www.naxos.com/libretti/tristan.htm
with the German original and an English
translation, but be warned: they are
not placed side by side. You get the
English text first and then the German.
To get them both I had to print out
173 pages! Then of course it is far
more readable than the common CD booklets
with their minuscule print.
A first choice for
this opera is still Karl Böhm (DG,
3 CDs at mid-price) with Nilsson,
Windgassen and a supporting cast of
any Wagnerian’s dreams. But this version
can hold its own against many of the
others.
Göran Forsling
Kungliga Operans Manskör (Royal Swedish
Opera Male Chorus); Kungliga Hovkapellet (Royal
Swedish Opera Orchestra)/Leif Segerstam 
