Tristan und Isolde

Wagner Tristan und Isolde opera to libretto by the composer. This is the 2009 Bayreuth revival directed by Anna-Sophie Mahler after Christoph Marthaler production. Stars Robert Dean Smith (Tristan), Iréne Theorin (Isolde), Robert Holl (King Marke), Jukka Rasilainen (Kurwenal), Ralf Lukas (Melot), Michelle Breedt (Brangäne), Clemens Bieber (Sailor), Arnold Bezuyen (Shepherd), and Martin Snell (Steersman). Peter Schneider conducts The Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master Eberhard Friedrich). Costume and stage design by Anna Viebrock; dramaturgy by Malte Ubenauf. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Sung in German. Released 2010, 2-disc set has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D

Buy on Amazon

What's New

Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.