Tristan und Isolde (DVD): Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1983), Daniel Barenboim, René Kollo, Johanna Meier, Matti Salminen, Hanna Schwarz
Stage director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Tristan: René Kollo
Isolde: Johanna Meier
King Marke: Matti Salminen
Brangäne: Hanna Schwarz
Kurwenal: Hermann Becht
Melot: Robert Schunk
Ein Hirt: Helmut Pampuch
Ein Steuermann: Martin Egel
Ein junger Seemann: Robert Schunk
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the DVD on AmazonA Bayreuth Festival classic filmed in 1983, this DVD will be the first choice for viewers wanting a more "traditional approach" to Tristan und Isolde. In the 80s the production was considered very modern, though, especially the ending, where it is revealed that Isolde's return in Act 3 is just a dream or a fantasy.
The production is very beautiful and fairy-tale like.
Daniel Barenboim made his Bayreuth debut with this production. Johanna Meier, the first American to sing Isolde at Bayreuth, is a great Isolde, and René Kollo as Tristan was near the peak of his career. The rest of the singers are all great. Matti Salminen stands out as a deeply moving King Marke.
The production ran from 1981 to '87. It quickly became a favourite with the Bayreuth
audiences.
See interview with Johanna Meier about this production here
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Reviews
“With Johanna Meier’s unusually powerful Isolde and René Kollo’s resplendent, expressive Tristan, a better cast is hardly imaginable today”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
“For a supposedly 'difficult' opera, there's a fair choice of DVD Tristans… But this 1983 Bayreuth version, reappearing at last here on DVD, remains the finest. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's staging steers impressively between the Romantically naturalistic and the poetic: a gnarled tree trunk doubles as ship and castle, and Isolde is symbolically isolated by her encircling robes. René Kollo and Johanna Meier don't have huge voices, but sing and act with unusual expression, and even look good. Matti Salminen as King Mark and Hanna Schwarz as Brangäne are heartbreakingly intense...”
BBC Music Magazine, December 2007
“This Bayreuth Tristan (first seen in 1981) is an almost perfect marriage of fairy-tale beauty (legendary Arthurian settings, "period" costumes) and interventionist Regie. Meier, of all princess, spell-casting witch and consumed lover, is a risk-taking Isolde, slamming the sword with the missing fragment into the wide swaying ship deck. Kollo's hero has Hotter-like detail, intensity and pain. ...the younger Daniel Barenboim secures thrilling drama-enhancing playing from the Festival Orchestra. But the ultimate triumph is Ponnelle's - he staged the show, designed the set and the costumes, and directed this film of it.”
Gramophone Magazine, November 2007