Richard Wagner referred to TRISTAN AND ISOLDE as a “storyline in three acts”, signalling a radical break with his previous large-scale romantic operas LOHENGRIN and TANNHÄUSER. The description was also Wagner’s way of serving notice that in his seventh work for the stage he would no longer be serving up grandiose crowd scenes à la grand opéra but rather that he had developed a musical language to express the inner motivation of his characters. This irresolvable knot of the conscious and sub-conscious, which determines the fate of the lovers, is the real theme of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE, its “storyline” being a path whose route is determined by the opposing poles of Eros and Thanatos. Revealing the psychology of protagonists against a minimalist backdrop is also characteristic of the work of Berlin director Michael Thalheimer. His acclaimed production of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE was born of a collaboration with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where it was performed in September 2024.

Musically this brand-new production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is only the latest in a hundred-year-old tradition of performances featuring the cream of operatic talent. The role call has seen big names such as Max Lorenz, René Kollo and Peter Seiffert interpreting the part of Tristan, Caterina Ligendza and Nina Stemme singing Isolde and conductors like Ferenc Fricsay, Christian Thielemann and Sir Donald Runnicles staging the work, the latter having also taken the stand in the most recent new production directed by Sir Graham Vick. This time round is no different, with the lovers being rendered by two leading Wagner singers from the new crop of artists: the US tenor Clay Hilley and Norwegian soprano Elisabeth Teige.

Spotlight
It was presumably love at first sight. When Elisabeth Teige made her debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2017, covering for a colleague in THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at short notice, audiences took an immediate shine to the young Norwegian. Here was a singer-performer who not only had the necessary presence with which to pull off the great Wagnerian roles but could also thrillingly convey the utter dedication to a goal that those protagonists have in common. Today Teige is one of the go-to international artists in the canon of Wagner’s female characters, yet she has always stayed true to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she went on to sing Elisabeth in TANNHÄUSER and Sieglinde in THE VALKYRIE. Her run of triumphant turns now continues with her appearance as SIEGFRIED’s Brünnhilde and as Isolde, her first premiere in a Wagner role at our venue.

A co-production between the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. With the kind support of the Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin e. V. Presented by radio 3 from rbb and taz.

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