Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Director: Mariusz Trelinski

Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle

Cast:
Nina Stemme, Stuart Skelton, René Pape, Jevgenyij Nyikitin, Jekatyerina Gubanova

World premiere: Munich Court Theater, 1865. Wagner’s breathtaking meditation on love and death holds a unique place in the opera world. Its music has astounded, infuriated, and inspired audiences since it was first heard, and the title roles are acknowledged as among the most extraordinarily demanding in opera. The vocal challenges, the sumptuous symphonic scale of the orchestral writing, and the mystical nature of the story, with its opportunities for creative visual design, make this awe-inspiring work a phenomenon of the repertory. Tristan und Isolde opens the Met season in a new production by Mariusz Treliński (the director responsible for last season’s double bill of Iolanta and Bluebeard’s Castle), and will be well served by a cast of outstanding Wagnerians: Nina Stemme as Isolde, Stuart Skelton as Tristan, Ekaterina Gubanova as Brangäne, and René Pape as King Marke, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting, in one of his rare appearances at the Met.