Okay, I confess: by the end of the evening, I was struggling with tears (and for all the right reasons). Were you there at last night’s opening of Christian Rath’s stunning new production of TRISTAN & ISOLDE? Was I the only sentimental slob out there who found the overall experience transcendent?
The reviews are already coming in, starting with D Magazine’s Wayne Lee Gay who found our TRISTAN “an unforgettable and thrilling operatic experience.” Read his review here.
And over at “Theater Jones,” arts writer Gregory Sullivan Isaacs writes that “Rarely has a better cast been assembled. All of the singers did more than make it through Wagner’s superhuman demands…they even looked their roles, so much so, that a film of the opera could not have been better cast on purely visual merits alone.” Click here for his review.
Classical Music Critic Scott Cantrell of “The Dallas Morning News” opened his review of the production with a statement of fact: “Thursday night’s Tristan und Isolde just might have outdone even last season’s Boris Godunov as the most glorious performance I’ve witnessed from the Dallas Opera.” Read more of Scott’s review by clicking here.
David Weuste of Everyday Opera offered praise of the production design: “The near-minimal sets from stage director Christian Räth aided the never-ceasing vision of Wagner to come forth as it presented each Act with little need for set changes, thus never breaking the momentum. His ability to keep such a minimal staging with such vivid and ever-moving settings was the direct result of the stunning projection crew headed by Elaine J. McCarthy. These projections not only “set the scenes,” they also added another level of intensity to already tense moments.” Read it all right here.
Olin Chism of “The Star-Telegram” compared the production to a 1975 classic and found it wanting. Read more here.
Sherri Tilley of “The Flash List” Entertainment Guide compared the production to an extremely tall roller coaster with most of the evening spent tick-ticking your way to the crest of the ride before the final whoooooosh! Read more here.
Trevor Neal of “Operagasm” thought that “everything came together” in this production. Read his review here.
More to come…I’m sure! Please feel free to share your thoughts.
(Photos by Karen Almond, Dallas Opera)
Suzanne Calvin, Manager/Director Media & PR