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Classical Source |
by Lewis M. Smoley |
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Wagner: Konzert, New York, Carnegie Hall, 12. April 2018 (Tristan, 2. Akt) |
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Act II of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde; Jonas Kaufmann & Camilla Nylund
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In Tristan und Isolde, Wagner sought to elucidate what absolute,
unrestrained Love might be like and how it approaches self-annihilation.
There is much Freudian psychology in this approach (Eros and Thanatos
merging). Whether or not Wagner succeeded doesn’t matter: he created a work
of art that both consummates High Romanticism and looks forward to the
psychology-dominated modern era.
Andris Nelsons assembled some of the
best Wagner singers available, and offered the core second Act of this
masterwork. Jonas Kaufmann and Camilla Nylund brought to their roles
substantial vocal gifts. Although the assembled voices performed quite well,
tension was restrained and urgency controlled, and the unbounded madness of
both words and music in the love-duet was rather tepid, too rational to
affect a sense of madness or, in fact, much emotion at all. Witness
Tristan’s entrance at the beginning of scene two: to music that should
convey unrestrained intensity (rather underplayed by Nelsons), Kaufmann
strode lackadaisically onto the stage and greeted Nylund with a respectful
if faint smile. The two then proceeded through the hour-long scene reading
from their respective scores, separated by the conductor’s podium, and not
seeming to show much interest in what they were singing, presumably to each
other. Certainly, one can’t expect exertion of the full measure of emotion
in a concert performance, but much more could have been done by the lovers
to express the turgid passion that their words express.
Camilla
Nylund is essentially a lyric soprano and has done some accomplished work in
the lighter Wagnerian roles. Her Isolde on this occasion lacked personality,
dramatic tension and involvement, although she certainly has ringing top
notes, but her middle range is hollow and colorless, and she made virtually
no eye contact with Tristan – possibly a result of some insecurity in
reading her role; she needs to get more deeply into this role so that her
manner of expression fulfills its emotive depth.
Kaufmann, on the
other hand, has the power, heft and vocal depth of a true Heldentenor. He
was able to sing above the orchestra with unfailing strength the like of
which we have not heard for some time. Both his voice and his manner of
expression have matured since his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2011 as
Siegmund in Die Walküre. As Tristan he was rather temperate in expression,
but nevertheless heroic and dramatically sound.
The contributions of
Mihoko Fujimura and Georg Zeppenfeld deserve special mention. Fujimura was a
tour de force in the first scene. Sometimes her strong voice soared above
Nylund’s. But Fujimura treated the role of Brangäne much like a Lieder
singer might, with little effort to draw attention to its dramatic
character. Zeppenfeld’s King Mark was very impressive. His deep, rich voice
and noble bearing made his rather lengthy monologue, in which he virtually
begs Tristan to explain his treachery, seem all the more sympathetic. Andrew
Rees’s Melot and David Kravitz’s Kurwenal were admirably portrayed.
What was most disappointing was Nelsons’s rather lackluster, restrained
reading. It seemed as if the madness admittedly expressed in the music
turned him off, so he opted for a more rational approach, favoring lyricism
and clarity over dramatic tension. Sometimes tempos dragged mercilessly,
Nelsons apparently intending to tone down the intensity of the music. Yet in
soft passages, such as the ‘Peace of Love’ duet, his rather broad tempo let
the singers express their feelings in linear stretches of tender emotion,
but the terraced buildup to the shatteringly abrupt broken climax, when
Melot and the King suddenly enter following a warning by Kurwenal, was
ineffectual.
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