TRISTAN UND ISOLDE – REVIEW OF 2026 LIVE FROM THE MET PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

New York’s Met Opera has a new production of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and it transmitted it to hoi polloi in local theatres around the world. It is an extraordinary production and a rich  collection of superlatives will accompany my review.

Wagner had doubts about Tristan und Isolde being produced and opined that “supremely talented performers are the only ones equal to the task”. The first company that agreed to stage it, dropped after rehearsals began because the singers and the orchestra agreed that it was much too difficult to perform. The second company that took it up, saw its leading tenor become terrified of his role and back out. The opera was judged unsingable after dozens of rehearsals and dropped; there were other disasters but you can look them up yourself.

The new Met production by Yuval Sharon shows his brilliant imagination that together with the work of Set Designer Es Devlin, and superior creative team delivers a Tristan und Isolde that will blow your mind.

Lisa Davidsen as Isolde and Michael Spyres as Tristan in "Tristan und Isolde." 
Photo: Karen Almond / Met Opera

The plot is straightforward but what Wagner did with it is anything but straight or simple.  The hero Tristan (Michael Spyres) is taking the beautiful Irish Princess Isolde (Lise Davidsen) to Cornwall to marry his uncle King Marke (Ryan Speedo Green). Tristan was injured when he killed Morold, Isolde’s betrothed. She used her magical powers to heal Tristan’s wound without knowing his identity and because he looked in her eyes and she fell in love with him. There is a bit more to it than that but listen to the orchestra and it will all make sense.

Without going into detail, the love between the two develops in depth and passion that can only be experienced and expressed by Wagnerian heroes and mere mortals like us can only imagine. The use of a love potion helps.         

Wagner’s prescription that only supremely talented singers can perform his opera is met by dramatic soprano Lise Davidsen as Isolde, tenor Michael Spyres as Tristan with mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as Brangäne, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny as Kurwenal and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as King Marke.     

Michael Spyres as Tristan in Act III of "Tristan und Isolde." 
Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera

The demands on the major singers are enormous. What most composers can do in five or ten minutes, Wagner holds the feet of the singers to the fire twice or three times longer. Davidsen has vocal prowess, control, tonal beauty and range that can only be summarized as extraordinary. She displays her masterful singing in the first act with Brangäne, her love scene with Tristan and of course the signature Liebestod. The number of singers that can ma0tch her can be counted on one hand and you may have a finger or two left untouched.

The demands on tenor Spyres as Tristan are not as onerous as those on Isolde but his performance is stunning both vocally and morally as the troubled faithful servant of the king. He is bringing Isolde to marry King Marke and his passionate love for Isolde forces him to betray his sovereign. He is a knight and such conduct reaches the depth  of treachery. Spyres makes us feel the pain of his treachery and enjoy his first-rate vocal performance.

Gubanova Brangane as the mixer of potions and Isolde’s companion has performed the role of Brangäne numerous times and she reprised it with ability and vocal mastery. The same kudos belong to bass baritone Tomasz Konieczny as Kurwenal and bass-baritone Green as King Marke. The King displays humanity and generosity in the face of a painful offence and fundamental betrayal.

Lisa Davidsen as Isolde, Ekaterina Gubanova (back to camera) as Brangäne, 
Ryan Speedo Green as King Marke, Tomasz Konieczny as Kurwenal, and 
Michael Spyres as Tristan. Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera

The bravura singing is matched and enhanced by the production values provided by Sharon and the rest of the creative team. I can only mention a few extraordinary touches. Some of the opera is performed on two screens. We see the characters on the upper screen and at times on the lower screen as well. Some of the action is seen through an eyeball that opens into a tunnel and zeroes in on the performers. There are some amazing scenes with gorgeous colours as well as more naturalistic ones with King Marke. Jason H. Thompson designed intricate projections, Ruth Hogben has designed amazing videos that are often dazzling and unexpected.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the powerful Metropolitan Opera Orchestra fortissimo and thrillingly.
Do not worry about the fate of the lovers, They defeat death with death. All was caused by the love potion. In death there is reconciliation, redemption and apotheosis through the power of love and Wagner’s music.
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Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner was transmitted Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera on March 21 and a reprise on April 13, 2026, at the Cineplex VIP Cinema, Shops at Don Mills, Toronto and other theatres across Canada. For more information: www.cineplex.com/events        

James Karas is the Culture Editor of the Greek Press, Toronto

RIGOLETTO – REVIEW OF 2026 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN, PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden has revived the 2021 production by Oliver Mears of Verdi’s Rigoletto, a favourite vehicle for opera houses around the world. As a result, both the opera and the jester have been seen in some unlikely places. Even a moderate operaphile could have sat through productions set in a Las Vegas Casino, a high-rise apartment building in New York and in a circus, to mention a few that come to mind.

The current revival is replacing the 2001 staging by David McVicar which was in a class of its own. When I reviewed that production, I wrote that the opening scene resembled an orgy. We saw a disheveled woman running across the stage with breasts exposed, clutching her clothes. We know that she had just been raped. The courtiers of the Duke of Mantua, sexual predators, chase women, grab them sexually and simulate coitus and act like predatory animals that is frightful and abhorrent. There was also a naked man. 

Director Mears takes a far more civilized approach to the operatic chestnut and the result is a highly enjoyable and refined production. The set by Simon Lima Holdsworth emphasizes dark tones, and the presence of lust and evil in the Court of Mantua is unmistakable. We see a large copy of Titian's Venus of Urbino, showing a naked woman lying languidly on a bed and the suggested violent Rape of Europa. In the latter, Zeus disguised as a bull abducts and then rapes a young woman.

In this production, we see Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda in a well-lit bedroom wearing night clothes before she is abducted and violated. Her presence in her bedroom is the only pleasant scene in the opera before the despicable courtiers abduct her. The beautiful duet with her father takes place in the darker tones of the stage.

George Petean as Rigoletto and Aida Garifullina as Gilda in 

Oliver Mears' Rigoletto, The Royal Opera ©2026 Marc Brenner

Mears has a lot of help from the superb cast in this marvelous production. Baritone George Petean as Rigoletto goes through a gamut of emotions. He ridicules the courtiers mercilessly and is an unsympathetic character trying to produce laughter for the amoral  and despicable duke. We see him and hear his sonorous voice in his scene with his beloved Gilda. And finally, we see the vengeful Rigoletto who pays Sparafucile to assassinate the Duke. Rigoletto is physically and psychologically deformed and his love of his daughter is his redeeming feature.

He is cursed by Count Monterone (baritone Blaise Malaba) and it arouses terror in him that runs thematically and musically throughout the opera. He decides to have the Duke killed and gets the services of  Sparafucile (bass William Thomas) who is professional, efficient and devoid of emotion in his job. He is frightful. We see all these situations and emotions in Rigoletto’s life in Petean’s splendid performance.

The lovely and innocent Gilda is sung by soprano Aida Garifullina. We first see Gilda through the curtains in her bedroom. She is in or around her bed in a beautiful room without singing a note. The scene is an addition by Mears. She is innocent and naïve with a loving father. She goes to church where she has seen a handsome young man who tells her he is a poor student. She sings “Caro nome” the beautiful aria inspired by his name. It is an expression of love, goodness and purity that Garifullina delivers with passion and poignancy that she holds onto throughout the performance.

The poor student that Gilda has fallen in love with is the lecherous and narcissistic Duke of Mantua. Tenor Ivan Ayon Rivas has the vocal and physical equipment for the role from his lascivious conduct at court to his description of women in “La dona e mobile” when visiting  a brothel at the end of the opera. Rivas sings with poise, assurance and gusto.  Women are toys to be played with and tossed out.

Veteran conductor Mark Elder led the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in a superb  performance of the score in a richly thought out and outstanding production of Verdi’s classic.

This is a solid and outstanding production that does not need outlandish effects like a casino or an apartment building, even an orgy.
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Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi with libretto by Francesco Maria Piave continues with some cast changes until April 23, 2026, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. www.roh.org.uk

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto