Usher Hall: Tristan und Isolde
Usher Hall 11/3/26
Orchestra of Scottish Opera Stuart Stratford, conductor
Gwyn Hughes Jones, tenor, Katherine Broderick, soprano
Donal Hurley has already written quite substantially about the opening night of Scottish Opera’s new ‘Tristan und Isolde’, a semi-staged production of Wagner’s astonishing epic opera, in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow on Saturday 7th March. I have deliberately not read his piece, so that I can give a completely personal view of what I reckon is probably my favourite opera in the whole repertoire. It is one I never appeared in myself, although I always wanted to sing King Mark, but it didn’t come up in my agents’ books over the years. I have however seen it several times, including a very early production in the early 1970s with Scottish Opera, conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson, and a life-changing one (for me) in the late 1970s, with Jon Vickers in the title role, conducted by Sir Colin Davis.
Readers of the EMR will know that I have written several times on the EMR Blog about ‘Tristan und Isolde’, and will appreciate the important part that the opera has played in my life. Indeed, you will be able to find out some of my thoughts about it in my recently published book, A Singer’s Life, The Journals of a Modern Troubadour, available on Amazon and in Topping and Co. Here are a few reactions to this new Scottish Opera performance in the Usher Hall:
You will immediately notice that it took place in Edinburgh’s top concert hall and not in the Festival Theatre, and that it only received one performance there (and the one in Glasgow four days earlier). This was presumably for reasons of financial necessity, as any full scale production of Wagner’s great music dramas can be prohibitively expensive nowadays. With the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, led by Anthony Moffat, on stage and with a small performing area cleared in front of them, with minimal sets and props, the opera was sung from memory and semi- staged by Justin Way and the singers themselves. A multi-national cast had been assembled (although sadly with no Scots singers!) and Scottish Opera’s Music Director, Stuart Stratford, was the conductor.
One of the great advantages of a semi-staging is that we avoid the horrors (or perhaps delights, depending on your preference) of the modern Concept Opera, where a director imposes his views, for better or for worse, on the composer’s original creation. Working in tandem with the singers and the conductor, a semi-staging will usually adhere reasonably strictly to the libretto and time-scale of the opera, allowing the audience to see it as first imagined, without any imposed vision from without. Readers will know my own preference for this approach, although it does mean putting the work on without the normal several weeks of rehearsal (see Chapter 7 of my book).
In this instance, I found that the semi-staging worked beautifully, permitting the audience (with a noticeably varied age range – bravo!) to see and understand the work in all its philosophical and musical complexity. A cast of competent singing actors brought Wagner’s extraordinary creation to life, with no extraneous distractions. The very experienced Welsh tenor, Gwyn Hughes Jones, with whom I sang nearly 10 years ago in ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’ at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, was Tristan, one of the heaviest and most demanding of all Wagner’s tenor heroes. His lover and unwitting Nemesis, Isolde, was sung by the fine English soprano, Katherine Broderick, and her scheming but good-hearted maid, Brangäne, was sung by the Georgian mezzo-soprano, Khatuna Mikaberidze. The Korean baritone, Hansung Woo, sang Tristan’s faithful servant, Kurwenal, and, as a late replacement for an indisposed Dingle Yandle, the Welsh bass, Richard Wiegold, sang King Mark.
From where I was sitting, to the left of the Stalls, there was a problem of balance between orchestra and singers. In a theatre, the orchestra is below the stage, allowing the singers to project into the auditorium with some hope of being heard clearly. In the Usher Hall, with the full orchestra on the same level as the singers, this subtle balance of forces becomes much more tricky, and inevitably (especially with so little rehearsal time in the hall), the full orchestra can drown the cast when Wagner unleashes his full array of instruments. It wasn’t disastrous, but it was a problem, although a friend of mine in the Upper Circle (which was disappointingly not full) told me that the balance up there was much better. You have the ultimate dilemma up there – uncomfortable seats for 4 hours and potential vertigo weighed against a much better acoustic. I always sat there in my youth, but sadly time and tide wait for no man and I can only sit downstairs these days!
There was some magnificent playing by the Scottish Opera Orchestra, and I suppose that was one of the advantages of having the orchestra on stage. We are blessed at the moment to have four world class orchestras in Scotland, the RSNO, the SCO, the BBCSSO and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. It’s all a far cry from my early concert and opera going, when, for the opera, chamber works used the SCO and big Romantic operas used the SNO. When I joined the company as a tyro bass in 1982, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera had recently been created for the newly refurbished Theatre Royal, and was good but variable. Now all the professional instrumentalists in Scotland thrive in an atmosphere of excellence, and the standards are jaw-droppingly superb. Top marks in ‘Tristan’ go to the beautiful cor anglais of Kirstie Logan, peerless in Act 3, but everyone played their part in a riveting performance. The men of the chorus in the First Act were first class – again it was great to see and hear them clearly, rather than as an offstage chorus in the theatre. The tenors in particular were terrific, and it was a special treat to see Declan McCusker in their ranks. I remember him from my time with SO from 1982-85, and that’s a good innings still to be belting out the high notes 40 years later!
Despite the occasional balance problems, I found the cast uniformly excellent. The former Scottish Opera emerging artist, the Chinese tenor, Shengzhi Ren, made a good impression as the sailor and the shepherd, and Marc le Brocq was suitably evil and oleaginous as the treacherous Melot. Stepping in at short notice, Richard Wiegold was a sonorous King Mark, if a little tight at the top, and I was very impressed by the Brangäne of Khatuna Mikaberidze. This is a lovely role for a high mezzo, and Ms Mikaberidze sang and acted it with aplomb.
Gwyn Hughes Jones is a tad on the lightweight side for Tristan, although it must be said that Wagner asked a hell of a lot from his tenors towards the end of his composing career. I have never been able to reconcile the fact that Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, the original Tristan, was only 29 when he created the role. How on earth could a 29 year old possibly sing such a role, both vocally and psychologically? The fact that he died only weeks after the Premiere in Munich in 1865 has created a myth about this charismatic figure that is hard to penetrate.
Mr Hughes Jones was able to use his best attributes in his assumption of the role – an unflagging stamina and a rock solid technique which allows him to sing consistently over a four hour period, pouring out glorious tone at the very top of the tenor range throughout the evening. The subtle and sensually wondrous love duet in Act 2 was especially beautiful, as Mr Hughes Jones possesses the ability to sing softly as well as loudly, but with no loss of quality.
Katherine Broderick was a revelation as Isolde. Studying with the same vocal coach as myself, the excellent Anthony Roden, I knew she would have a strong technique but I was unprepared for the subtlety and imagination of her portrayal. Blessed with a very expressive face, she conveyed all the characteristics of Isolde from imperious princess to lovesick teenager, and sang with a luscious tone, able to ride over even the loudest of orchestration. Only at the very top of her voice did she feel overextended, and only very rarely, and her Liebestod, at the end of an exhausting evening of full-voiced singing, was extremely moving. An impressive Scottish Opera debut indeed!
For me though, quite the finest singing of the evening came from the Korean baritone, Hansung Woo, as the faithful Kurwenal. After studying in his homeland, he has spent time honing his craft in German opera houses, and has recently leapt into the international scene with appearances at Covent Garden, Berlin and the Met in New York. Scottish Opera is indeed lucky to get him for this role, as I predict he will be well out of our price range very soon. This is a magnificent voice, big, rich and free, with a gleaming and thrilling top. I have never heard Kurwenal so well sung, and so intelligently played. He needs to work on his physicality and general acting, but that will come. You can learn to act but that voice is one in a million!
The whole opera was conducted with some skill and precision by Stuart Stratford, and his choice of tempi was, on the whole, exemplary. The balance problems were unfortunate but as I said, with so little time in the hall, and the singers not singing full voice until the performance, it was not a huge surprise. In addition, as I said, some people in the hall had a better balance, although it’s a shame if the folk who pay the most get the worst sound. Mind you, if that was the worst, it was still exceptionally fine.
Thank you, Scottish Opera, for bringing an ecstatic audience a performance of this wonderful opera. A rare standing ovation greeted the end, and it was well deserved!
