Dallas Opera's TRISTAN & ISOLDE Opens 2/16

The Dallas Opera will present Richard Wagner's intense and passionate drama, TRISTAN & ISOLDE, for the first time in nearly forty years.  This new TDO production opens Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 7:00 PM in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Downtown Dallas.

            Subsequent performances of TRISTAN & ISOLDE are scheduled for February 19(m), 22, 25, 2012.  Flex subscriptions are still available, beginning at just $75, and single tickets start at $25. 

            Contact the Dallas Opera Box Office at 214.443.1000 or purchase online, 24/7, at dallasopera.org.

            Based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Strassburg and a tale that harkens back to European antiquity, Composer/librettist Richard Wagner was the dominating force behind this 1865 masterpiece which propelled opera into a bold new direction with its powerful depiction of obsessive love and desire, as well as Wagner's revolutionary use of tonality, orchestral coloring and harmonic suspension.

            TRISTAN & ISOLDE will be conducted by acclaimed Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director Graeme Jenkins and staged by German director Christian Räth, who staged TDO's acclaimed productions of Fidelio (2002) and Luisa Miller (2005).  Räth is a frequent guest at prominent opera companies both here and abroad.  Most recently, he served as Associate Director of the new production of Wagner's Ring Cycle at San Francisco Opera. 

            Elaine J. McCarthy played a pivotal role in shaping the look of our critically acclaimed 2010 world premiere production of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Moby-Dick.  She is back to bring her cutting-edge projection design to this atmospheric new production of TRISTAN & ISOLDE.  This production will also feature newly designed costumes by Susan A. Cox in her Dallas Opera debut. 

            This new production of TRISTAN & ISOLDE is being generously underwritten by Crow Holdings, with additional support from John and Arlene Dayton, Amy and Vernon Faulconer, Dr. and Mrs. Tom G. Mayer, Mr. James R. Seitz, Jr., Dr. and Mrs. Kern Wildenthal, Dr. Jean D. Wilson, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

            Texas Tenor Clifton Forbis, recently installed as the Chair of the Voice Program at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts, returns to the Winspear stage as Tristan, after singing the title role in TDO's new production of Verdi's Otello (2009) to open our inaugural season in the Margot & Bill Winspear Opera House. 

            Mr. Forbis, according to cultural icon, policy wonk, and commentator Andrew Moravcsik, is that "rarest of singers: a genuine dramatic Heldentenor whose clarion top rests on a dark baritonal base."  Ultimately, this promptEd Moravcsik to ask, "Who today sings a finer Tristan?" 

            Joining Forbis is American Soprano Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet as his Isolde.

            "These two amazing artists have been acclaimed around the world for their interpretations of these challenging roles," says Dallas Opera Artistic Director Jonathan Pell, "and it is a privilege to welcome them back to Dallas for this production.  They last appeared together in North Texas as 'Sieglinde' and 'Siegmund' during the 1999 Season, in Die Walküre, part of the Dallas Opera's memorable Ring Cycle."

            Miss Charbonnet also appeared with the Dallas Opera in the role of Ortrud in our critically acclaimed production of Wagner's Lohengrin (2007).  Texas Monthly Associate Editor Chester Rosson wrote, "The villains were embodied in Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus and Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet, a powerful duo who might have stolen the show in a lesser production." 

            Mezzo-Soprano Mary Phillips will be singing Brangäne in her role debut.  She has been described as "a vocal powerhouse as well as a compelling actor" (Edward Reichel, Deseret News) and last appeared with TDO in our unforgettable 2006 production of Rodelinda in the role of Eduige.  She made her company debut in 1996 as Ceres in Lee Hoiby's The Tempest and subsequently appeared as Rossweise in 1999's Die Walküre.

            Finnish bass-baritone Jukka Rasilainen will be making his American operatic debut portraying Kurvenal, one of Tristan's retainers.

            "He has sung this part often in Europe," explains Mr. Pell, "and in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  Just this past summer, Mr. Rasilainen repeated the role at the Bayreuth Festival." 

            The Classical Source describes Rasilainen as having a "rich voice but at the same time…a wonderfully incisive and cutting quality and a huge amount of power".

            Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson will be making his Dallas Opera debut in the role of King Marke of Cornwall, a role he has sung to great acclaim around the world, including San Francisco Opera.  "One figure towered above the rest on Friday, literally and figuratively," wrote Martin Bernheimer of The Financial Times.  "His tone dark and his dynamic range broad, he exuded raw power, crusty lust and comic bravado, all reinforced by a trace of gravitas."

            Making his American Debut is British Baritone Stephen Gadd as Melot, a role he has sung to great acclaim at London's Royal Opera, and at the Glyndebourne and Baden Baden Festivals.  The Daily Telegraph's Michael White praised his "crisp, dark diction…superb." 

            Lighting design will be by Alan Burrett, with wig and make-up designs for TRISTAN & ISOLDE by David Zimmerman.

            Chorus preparation will be by Dallas Opera Chorus Master Alexander Rom.

Parking onsite will be available in the Lexus Red Parking beneath the Winspear Opera House and the Lexus Silver Parking adjacent to the Wyly Theatre.  Should those reach capacity, additional paid parking is available at nearby One Arts Plaza and in several surface lots.  Prices range from $5 to $25 per vehicle.

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            Love and death are inexorably intertwined in this opera based upon an ancient Celtic legend. In this incomparable work, Wagner, through a combination of musical genius and the sheer force of his personality, shaped radical philosophical ideas about desire, sacrifice, and redemption into a groundbreaking work of art that continues to influence composers worldwide.  This intense drama is sparked by a chance meeting and a powerful potion that drives a Cornish knight and an Irish princess-the wife of his mentor and king-into each other's arms; creating a fiery love triangle that can only be fully consummated in death!

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            Three-Performance FLEX subscriptions and single tickets are on sale now (prices and discounts subject to availability) through the Dallas Opera Ticket Services Office at 214.443.1000 or online atwww.dallasopera.org.  Student Rush best-available tickets are available for $25 (one per valid Student I.D.) at the Winspear box office, ninety minutes prior to each performance.

 

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