RICHARD WAGNER NILSSON · UHL · RESNIK KRAUSE · VAN MILL WIENER PHILHARMONIKER SIR GEORG SOLTI Richard Wagner 1813–1883 Libretto: Richard Wagner Schiffsvolk, Ritter und Knappen Sailors, knights and esquires · Marins, chevaliers et écuyers Tristan . Fritz Uhl Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde König Marke . Arnold van Mill Chorus master: Reinhold Schmidt King Marke · Le roi Marke Isolde . Birgit Nilsson Wiener Philharmoniker SIR GEORG SOLTI Kurwenal . Tom Krause Melot . Ernst Kozub Brangäne . Regina Resnik Ein Hirt . Peter Klein A Shepherd · Un Pâtre Ein Steuermann . Theodor Kirschbichler A Steersman · Un Pilote Ein junger Seemann . Waldemar Kmentt A Young Sailor · Un Jeune Matelot 2 Birgit Nilsson, Fritz Uhl John Culshaw, Tom Krause Photo: Decca/Eleanor Morrison Photo: Decca/Eleanor Morrison 3 Tristan und Isolde — Einige Betrachtungen zu den 29 CONTENTS · TABLE · INHALT Page/Seite Charakteren, der Musik und der Aufnahme John Culshaw Cue points · Points de repérage Tracks 5 Eine Einführung in die Oper und ihre Leitmotive 35 Tristan und Isolde — Some observations on the 7 Handlung 38 characters, the music and the recording John Culshaw Libretto · Livret 40 An introduction to the opera and its Leitmotifs 12 Synopsis 16 Tristan und Isolde — Quelques observations sur 18 les personnages, a musique et l’enregistrement John Culshaw Présentation de l’opéra et de ses leitmotifs 24 Argument 27 4 Timing Page Erster Aufzug · Act One · Acte un Zweiter Aufzug · Act Two · Acte deux 1 Vorspiel · Prelude · Prélude 10 .34 39 ^ Einleitung · Prelude · Prélude 1 .58 77 1. Auftritt · Scene 1 · Scène 1 1. Auftritt · Scene 1 · Scène 1 2 Westwärts schweift der Blick Junger Seeman, Isolde, Brangäne 6 .08 39 & Hörst du sie noch? Mir schwand schon fern der Klang Isolde, Brangäne 6 .03 77 2. Auftritt · Scene 2 · Scène 2 * Dem Freund zulieb’ erfand diese List aus Mitleid Melot Isolde, Brangäne 6 .26 80 3 Frisch weht der Wind der Heimat zu Junger Seeman, Isolde, Brangäne 3 .51 43 2. Auftritt · Scene 2 · Scène 2 4 Befehlen ließ dem Eigenholde Furcht der Herrin ich, Isolde! 5 .52 45 ( Isolde! Geliebte! — Tristan! Geliebter! Tristan, Isolde 8 .59 83 Isolde, Kurwenal, Tristan, Brangäne, Männer ) Getäuscht von ihm, der dich getäuscht, wie mußt’ ich liebend um dich leiden 7 .37 90 3. Auftritt · Scene 3 · Scène 3 Isolde, Tristan 5 Weh, ach wehe! Dies zu dulden! Brangäne, Isolde 2 .05 49 ¡ O sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe Tristan, Isolde 6 .27 94 6 Wie lachend sie mir Lieder singen Isolde, Brangäne 10 .22 51 ™ Einsam wachend in der Nacht Brangäne, Isolde, Tristan 4 .54 96 7 Welcher Wahn! Welch eitles Zürnen Brangäne, Isolde 4 54 # .27 Unsre Liebe? Tristans Liebe? Dein’ und mein’ Tristan, Isolde 4 .48 97 8 Kennst du der Mutter Künste nicht? Brangäne, Isolde, Schiffsvolk 3 .50 56 ¢ So starben wir, um ungetrennt Tristan, Isolde, Brangäne 8 .58 99 4. Auftritt · Scene 4 · Scène 4 3. Auftritt · Scene 3 · Scène 3 9 Auf! Auf! Ihr Frauen! Frisch und froh! Kurwenal 1 .11 58 ∞ Rette dich, Tristan! Kurwenal 0 .28 103 0 Herrn Tristan bringe meinen Gruß Isolde, Kurwenal, Brangäne 6 .25 58 § Der öde Tag zum letztenmal! … Tatest du’s wirklich? Tristan, Melot, Marke 13 104.09 ! Herr Tristan trete nah! Isolde 2 .01 62 ¶ O König, das kann ich dir nicht sagen Tristan, Isolde, Melot 8 .15 108 5. Auftritt · Scene 5 · Scène 5 @ Begehrt, Herrin, was Ihr wünscht Tristan, Isolde 4 .15 63 £ Was schwurt Ihr, Frau? — Rache für Morold! Tristan, Isolde, Schiffsvolk 8 66 .02 $ Dein Schweigen faß ich Isolde, Schiffsvolk, Tristan 6 .40 68 % Tristan! — Isolde! — Treuloser Holder! 6 .45 71 Isolde, Tristan, Männer, Brangäne, Kurwenal 5 Dritter Aufzug · Act Three · Acte trois TRISTAN UND ISOLDE • Einleitung · Prelude · Prélude 4 .45 112 Some observations on the characters, the music and ª Hirtenreigen · Shepherd’s Tune · Mélodie de berger 2 .46 112 the recording 1. Auftritt · Scene 1 · Scène 1 John Culshaw º Kurwenal! He! Sag, Kurwenal! Hirt, Kurwenal 3 .36 112 ⁄ Die alte Weise: — Was weckt sie noch? Tristan, Kurwenal 5 .25 114 The story of Tristan and Isolde is about love and loyalty, treachery and betrayal . Some scholars ¤ Hei nun! Wie du kamst? Zu Roß rittest du nicht Kurwenal 1 .19 116 believe it originated in a poem, now lost, known to the storytellers of the tenth and eleventh ‹ Dünkt dich das? Ich weiß es anders Tristan, Kurwenal 8 .15 117 centuries and elaborated by them . The earliest surviving written fragment comes from the › Noch losch das Licht nicht aus Tristan, Kurwenal 5 .10 120 middle of the twelfth century, and the classic version by Gottfried von Strassburg from the fi Noch ist kein Schiff zu sehn! Kurwenal, Tristan 12 .20 122 beginning of the thirteenth . In any of these forms the story is potential operatic material, for fl Bist du nun tot? Lebst du noch? Kurwenal, Tristan 10 .08 126 it abounds in incident, passion and intrigue; but it was Wagner’s achievement to see beyond the detail and into the heart of the legend . He was searching for a vehicle through which 2. Auftritt · Scene 2 · Scène 2 to express, in music, the extremes of emotional experience: ecstasy and despair, love and ‡ O diese Sonne! Ha, dieser Tag! Tristan, Isolde 3 .34 131 hatred, life and death; and he wanted to convey these apparent extremes as inseparable ° Ich bin’s, ich bin’s, süßester Freund! Isolde 6 .04 132 essential elements of the same experience, to unify them in discordant terms of life and 3. Auftritt · Scene 3 · Scène 3 resolve them in terms of death . In the story of Tristan and Isolde he found what he wanted . · Kurwenal! Hör! Ein zweites Schiff 8 .30 134 Deprived of the incidents and improbabilities with which, over the centuries, it had been Hirt, Kurwenal, Steuermann, Brangäne, Melot, Marke encumbered, the legend revealed its imperishable strength: it was not just about the love ‚ Mild und leise wie er lächelt Isolde 7 .08 140 of Tristan and Isolde, but about love; it was not just about the betrayal and compassion of King Marke, but about betrayal and compassion; it was, above all, about those conditions B of the soul over which the finest prose may stumble, but which music can encompass . For those who wish to trace the origins and development of the legend and understand how, in Wagner’s hands, it became the foundation of his music-drama, there is no better introduction than Ernest Newman’s essay in Wagner Nights (originally published in 1949). In his enormously readable analysis, Newman was able to counterpoint the musical structure, the dramatic development and the symbolism through which Wagner sought to give universal significance to a story of individual tragedy; and it would be as foolish to attempt another such analysis as to write another opera on the same subject . It is, however, useful to consider the individual characters in Tristan, for they are important not only for the symbolic concepts they embody, but also as human beings . Like all great works of art, Tristan exists simultaneously 6 on several levels . At one extreme it is concerned with spiritual values expressed through in death, so in a sense the extreme of trust extended by Marke to Tristan is beyond realisation characters who are, in this sense, no more than intermediaries: one suffers with Tristan not in human terms . It ends in personal tragedy because it is perfect . because of his predicament, which is individual and local, but because of his grief, which is Kurwenal’s loyalty to Tristan is equally intense and, on its own level, equally fallible . He universal; but at the other extreme, the characters never cease to be valid and understandable loves Tristan with a devotion so focussed that he has no conception of the surrounding on a simpler level of human morality . tragedy until it is far too late . In Act One Kurwenal still sees Isolde as the captive princess of Of all the characters, Tristan is the most complex . He, like Siegfried, is young and strong a rival kingdom and hurls public insults at her accordingly; he cannot see that Tristan’s calm, and proved in battle; unlike Siegfried, he is civilised . He comes of royal stock, with a strongly cold courtesy is a cloak for his tormented emotions . He fails to grasp the meaning of the developed awareness of loyalty, honour and discipline . It is his undeviating loyalty to King lovers’ outburst when at last the potion breaks their reserve . And in Act Three he sends for Marke that makes him repress his love for Isolde; and it is the unbearable conflict between Isolde because he thinks that Tristan is dying of his wounds, not of love . But though he does duty and love that leads him (knowingly, as Wagner’s prose sketch makes clearer than the not understand, though in fact he eventually attacks those who have come to forgive, and in libretto) to share with her what both believe to be a death potion . Almost the whole of the doing so is mortally wounded himself, the love of Kurwenal for Tristan is as true as Marke’s . first act ofTristan is about this conflict: the love of man and woman confronted head on with It is primitive and pure . It ends in personal tragedy because of its absolute purity . the loyalty between man and man . Brangäne’s substitution of the love potion eliminates the And what of Brangäne? It was she who, disobeying her mistress, substituted for the death conflict: Tristan becomes unaware of anything beyond the existence of Isolde, and of any potion a spell of love . We never really learn how much Brangäne understood, and her reply duty beyond his love for her .