Details
Longborough Festival Opera House
New Banks Fee
Longborough
Moreton-in-Marsh
Gloucester
GL56 0QF
England
Programme
Richard Wagner – Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90
Performers
Lee Bisset – soprano
Peter Wedd – Tenor
Anthony Negus – Conductor
Carmen Jakobi – Director
Longborough Festival Opera
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
The Irish princess Isolde is promised to King Marke of Cornwall. Together with her handmaiden Brangäne, she is escorted across the sea by the knight Tristan. Isolde’s lethal poison meant for Tristan is replaced with a love potion, and their passion leads them along a path to tragedy.
A variation on the Celtic legend of Tristan and Iseult, Wagner described the work not as an opera, but a drama – and ‘the most audacious and original work of my life’. Tristan und Isolde was enormously influential, and today is widely regarded as one of the greatest works in musical repertoire.
In this revival of Longborough's 2015 production, described by the New York Times as ‘a shattering success’, soprano Lee Bisset’s ‘passionate radiance of tone’ (Opera Magazine) joins the ‘heroic yet lyrical’ (The Times) tenor Peter Wedd – bringing to life this tale of tragic passion that through immortal music shows love as a force of nature.
Longborough Festival Opera is one of the UK's finest country opera houses, an intimate 500-seat theatre set amidst the glorious rolling hills of the Cotswolds. Take in the picturesque views, bring a picnic and enjoy spectacular opera – the 2017 Festival includes Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.