Wagner: Tristan und Isolde.(Opera Review)

WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde

Voigt, Lang; Moser, Weber, R. Holl; Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Thielemann. Text and translation. Deutsche Grammophon DG B0002250

Despite the recent furor over Deborah Voigt's physique and costuming, to me this singer's performances in the theater have always generated a degree of intensity and vigor that I can only call athletic. Granted, the experience depends mostly on sound not sight, but its impact at climactic moments--and, increasingly, in lyrical passages as well--can be so exhilarating as to make questions of body type irrelevant.

It's one of the virtues of this complete recording, taken from a live performance during her debut run as Isolde in Vienna last year, that Voigt's physical dynamism is captured so palpably. Some passages suffer in comparison with her selection of Isolde excerpts, most definitely recorded in the studio (EMI Classics 72435-57681-2; see OPERA NEWS, June 2004). The quieter confessional or ecstatic interludes are less polished, less poised, under the combat conditions of a live performance, especially a fast-paced one such as this. But if "Er sah mir in die Augen" (Act I) or the evocation of "Frau Minne" (Act II) fails to glow with the rapturous inner fire we know Voigt can muster, there is compensation in the lovers' fiery reunion in Act II. In the hard-driving, explosive conclusion to the Act I narrative, Voigt's high Bs (such as at "mir lacht das Abenteuer") lash out with compelling fury.

The soprano's comfort zone lies higher than with many Isoldes, at some ...