Wagner: Tristan und Isolde.(Sound recording review)

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde. Domingo, Stemme, Fujimura, Bar, Pape, Bostridge, Holt, Rose, Villazon; Antonio Pappano, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. EMI 7243 5 58006-2 (3 CD-1 DVD set).

With its stellar leads, passionate direction, superb sound, elegant packaging, and extra DVD, this new set of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde goes to the head of the class in my grade book. Wagner's ultimate love triangle, based on the Arthurian legends of Tristan, Isolde, and King Mark, has never wanted for glorious recordings, the ones by Karajan (EMI), Solti (Decca), and Bohm (DG) springing quickly to mind. But, frankly, the competition tends to pale next to the sound and voices on this new, 2005 EMI release.

The composer based his opera on the medieval accounts of the traditional story by German poet Gottfried von Strassburg. It recounts the tragic tale of two people who fall in love, the knight Tristan and the Irish Princess Isolde whom he is sent to deliver to her husband-to-be, King Mark of Cornwall. The story has every bit of the romance, spiritual imagery, ardor, and fire one could imagine, and Wagner matched it with the grand, fervent, romantic spiritualism of his music. Domingo, Stemme, Pappano, and the Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra capture the Wagnerian spirit in all its transcendent glory.

My first reaction upon seeing the cast list was that Placido Domingo seemed more than little old to be singing the part of the youthful Tristan. Yet upon hearing the set, I found Domingo's voice still belies his sixty-odd years, coming through as strongly and as sweetly as it did twenty and thirty years earlier. My reaction upon seeing the name Nina Stemme was "Who's she?" OK, I'm not an avid opera buff, and I don't keep up with the latest artists in the field. Yet, upon hearing the Swedish soprano, I could understand her being chosen to sing next to Domingo. She not only holds her own, ...