ABAO Bilbao Opera 2024-25 Review: Tristan und Isolde

By Mauricio Villa
 (Photo: ©E. Moreno Esquibel)

The opera of Bilbao began the year 2025 with Wagner’s masterpiece “Tristan und Isolde,” in a new production recently seen at Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, with an international cast of singers in the leading roles and a creative Spanish team signing the production.

The production, by stage director and set designer Allex Aguilera, was a faithful recreation of Wagner’s eternal love story. It was a minimalistic concept with a central wooden platform and two diagonal walls with circular windows in the middle. The back was just a cyclorama where video projections were projected. Waves of the sea were projected in the first act, there was a tree and a torch in the second act, and pillars with a beach background for the third act. The costumes and props were medieval-inspired. More than anything, the production was beautiful, which is rarely common today with abstract and conceptual takes that are usually presented at opera houses worldwide. So, it was nice, for once, to see “Tristan und Isolde” close to how Wagner might had imagined it.

Faltering Direction

But there are two things that I consider a stage director should do. The first one is to explain the story, action, and plot of the opera, which Aguilera did wonderfully. And secondly, to show the director’s “point of view” through the work, which is where Aguilera failed.  It is not about inventing a parallel dramaturgy (as it is sadly most usually done nowadays) or inventing one’s own story, but to decipher Wagner’s complex messages (deeply influenced by the philosopher Schopenhauer). It is essential to find a dramatical language that clearly presents to the audience the complex meaning of each scene. Wagner’s libretto, written in free poetry lines, is not realistic at all: the long monologues, the love duet, the final “Liebestod” are full of metaphors, repeating ideas constantly or long verses to express an idea. A dramatical stage language must be found to make Wagner’s verses meaningful and moving. Aguilera opted for two options: a realistic stage directing approach, like in the first act, as the characters reacted to every line with lots of movements (Isolde physically acted stomach pain during the after effects of the love potion), and static for the second and third act, with the exception of the final “Liebestod” where the soprano stood up and sang while moving her arms constantly without a dramatical focus or definition but rather moving her arms to support her phrasing and even breath support, which is what singers do when they are “not in character.” (This is usually wisely staged with the soprano completely still, giving the full dramatic power to the music, as so many extreme emotions and actions are expressed).

Aguilera did not succeed in presenting Wagner’s complex ideas and emotions about revenge, love, death, betrayal and physical/emotional pain. The realistic approach in some scenes turned out to be pointless, as the emotions and expressions are too extreme and not realistic at all. And one has to be a very good stage director to work with static imagery, without turning out the scene into a boring emptiness. The very last scene, as Isolde walks backwards into the light, after her last words of the Liebestod: “höchste lust!” ( I guess as a metaphor of dying) has been profusely done. And lifting up the sets and back cyclorama to show an empty stage with the towers of lights and technical stuff was something (again profusely done) which completely broke the whole concept of the production. I guess Aguilera wanted to express that what was happening was just theatre after all, but if you do so, you need to somehow insert details all around the opera, rather than doing a traditional staging for four and a half hours, and showing a bare theatre for the last bars of the opera.

One of the greatest achievements of the conductor Erik Nielsen was to find a perfect balance between the orchestral dense and powerful sound and all the voices. Every single singer could always be heard, which must sound obvious, but it is sadly not so. Conductors get carried away by Wagner’s explosive and complex music hiding most of the singers. And the Eskalduna venue is very hard for the voices as it is designed to be a symphonic auditorium and not an opera house. Therefore, the excellent acoustics can be a real challenge and danger for the voices as the orchestra sound is so good, so clear and really exposed. Even though a part of the pit is under the stage, and the wind and brass section of the orchestra are naturally decreased in volume, the orchestra in Wagner’s music is really big. So, it was memorable that Nielsen managed not to hide the voices while keeping all the leitmotivs that intertwined all the time with each other and the voices very clearly. He reached big moments of climax like the end of act one after the lovers drank the love potion, the beginning and end of the love duet in the second act and the Liebestod. Nielsen managed to keep tension during the overture, right after the love potion is consumed, or during all the interventions of Tristan in Act three but still be lyrical and emotional like Brängane’s intervention during the love duet in Act two or the slow sections in the overture or the Liebestod. I just found it really surprising that he opted to cut the “love duet” in Act two (a cut that was traditionally done decades ago) as Wagner is usually played without cuts, as some professors and musicians would considered it a sacrilege. The Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa and the male section of the Coro de Opera de Bilbao followed Nielsen’s commands easily, sounding bright and powerful.

Cast Highlights & Lowlights

Rachel Nicholls as Isolde (who replaced Oksana Dyka at the very last minute), Gwyn Hughes Jones as Tristan and Marko Mimica King Marke were very good singers as it was shown in their phrasing, the stamina (both Isolde and Tristan are extremely long roles), and their vocal technique, which enables them to finish the night with their voices still fresh. But they are not Wagnerian voices, or at least not ideal for these roles.

When dramatic voices are required for a role (as is in this case) it is not only because a big rotund dark sound is needed to be heard as powerful, dramatic or heroic over Wagner’s dense orchestration and extra loud moments during the big climax. The vocal qualities must match and recreate the character. Isolde is sung by a dramatic soprano because she is a mature woman with strong extreme emotions, like tremendous rage, passionate love, or frightening vengeance. Tristan is dramatic, a heldentenor because he has to sound heroic, proud, secure, but with outbursts of agony, pain and madness in Act three. And King Marke is an old man, very authoritarian but with a strong will and sense of honor. The three singers sounded too lyrical and their voices too small. Even with Nielsen’s hard intention of balancing the sound between the voices and the orchestra, their voices just couldn’t portray the demanded sense of power, heroism or outburst of extreme emotions.

Nicholls’ monologue in Act one lacked the rage and sense of revenge demanded by this piece. She delivered too cleanly and her bright high B naturals sounded very light and powerless. Her voice sounded small in the frenzied moments  after they consumed the love potion or at the beginning and end of the love duet. Then again, she had no trouble with the upper range as she could emit easily the two high Cs present at the beginning of the love duet. That said, the quality of her sound couldn’t match the outburst of sensuality, lust, and joy present in the orchestra. Her interpretation of the final piece, the famously named “Liebestod” (Death by love), came off as too relaxed in its vocalism and lacked the dramatic heft to create true catharsis. Isolde has more than one hour of rest (the last 20 minutes of Act two, a 25-minute interval, and the first 45 minutes of Act three) before her final intervention which is very central, as the highest note is an  A flat. So, the real challenge is to reach the end of the opera with a fresh voice and to have consistency and solidity in the middle register of the voice to surpass a forte orchestra. The final A flat on “wehendem all” should sound strong and powerful as is the big climax of this piece, but Nicholls’ sound was just too light and small.

Gwyn Hughes Jones as Tristan lacked power and heroism too. His first intervention is with a soft orchestration, so during his first confrontation with Isolde in Act one the voice sounded dark (I believe he darkened the sound too much and therefore the timbre was unnaturally manufactured). Ultimately, Jones’ sound just couldn’t match the sound from the pit, proving once more that volume and projection are two very different things, and that a voice (like Jones’) which sounds apparently big doesn’t’ carry over the orchestra because the sound is not well-projected.

He had the same problem during the beginning and end of the love duet where he had to fight against the orchestra while sustaining long A naturals. His voice sounded distant and small. He was ideal during the slow section of the love duet as the orchestra plays softer, and therefore his voice was fully present.

But he struggled in Act three. Tristan has basically three sections of music, interrupted by Kurwenal, which started soft and full of grief, but kept growing gradually into big explosions of agony, the orchestra at its most potent and Tristan forced to deliver powerful high A naturals. Jones’ voice was not strong enough to portray such extreme agony. He was a clever singer, although, and he did not push the sound to make it sound stronger. As such, he managed to finish his part with a beautiful ”Isolde!” in mezza voce. I have seen many Tristan’s struggling through Act three whose voices started to crack, become hoarse or lose their voices completely. Fortunately, Jones was not one of them.

Marko Mimica as King Marke was not a good fit. He is even classified as a bass-baritone in the program of several opera houses, when the role of King Marke demands a basso profundo voice. He basically has a 15-minute monologue at the end of Act two and a few spare lines in Act three. He doesn’t have a big orchestra to fight with as the sound from the pit during his monologue is softer throughout. But, Mimica, who comes from a Mozart and bel canto background, sounded too Italian in his phrasing, lacking the bite for Wagner’s declamatory style. It is true that Wagner hoped that his singers would imbue his music with a bel canto approach (he loved Bellini), but Mimica sounded too gentle in this approach.

Daniela Barcellona was an excellent Brängane with her powerful dark sound. Her voice sounds ideal for Wagner. She delivered a strong vocal portrayal even if she is mostly delegated to supporting lines during her interventions. But she has to sing one of the most beautiful melodies present in this score – “Einsam wachend!” – which happens during the love duet of the protagonist in Act two. She took advantage of her bel canto background to sing long legato lines, including dynamics and decrescendos. She was perfectly audible even when singing off-stage. Although her part is short, she received a strong ovation at the curtain call.

Egils Silins was an ideal Kurwenal, with his lyric baritone voice. He sounded cynical in the first act and sorrowful in the third act. He posseses a strong secure top range with an effortless high G in Act three during “Heiha heihahaha!” But his part is sadly too short.

It is also important to mention the young tenor Josu Cabrero in the double role of a sailor and shepherd. He is the first voice heard in the opera as he sings a “sailor’s song” off stage. He made a beautiful interpretation of “Westwärds…!” with his lyrical bright timbre which sounded present even while singing off-stage (with the pitch difficulties of singing “a cappella”).

Overall this was a solid production of Wagner’s masterpiece which was true to the original libretto, but lacked imagination in the stage directing of the singers. The cast of singers in the leading roles, although excellent singers possessing beautiful voices and secure technique, were inadequate for this repertoire as they couldn’t achieve the vocal challenges of their roles. Erik Nielsen gave an excellent interpretation of the score and managed the miracle of not hiding a single voice on stage while keeping the orchestra at its most sublime during Wagner’s great climactic moments.

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