La Scala’s Tristan und Isolde

With Tristan und Isolde , La Scala broadens its horizons and opens a new season in its history. In this new Scala production Daniel Barenboim, one of today’s most admired and sought-after conductors, and Patrice Chéreau, internationally renowned opera-theater-film director, fulfil a Wagnerian dream that they had been cherishing since 1980 and had postponed for a quarter of a century.
Called “A sublime new version” in a “grave and shockingly intense performance” with “the veteran mezzo Waltraud Meier (as a) marvelous, poised, unflaggingly intelligent (Isolde)” by The New York Times, Tristan und Isolde was directed by film and opera auteur Patrice Chéreau; designed by Richard Peduzzi; with famed conductor Daniel Barenboim on the podium. Opera lovers worldwide eagerly anticipated this particular La Scala production as Tristan had not been staged in Milan for nearly 30 years.

Stephen Hastings of Opera News writes: “Waltraud Meier’s timbre is characterful…it unquestionably became the voice of a bewitching Irish princess, whose phrasing and gestures seemed at all times to flow naturally with the music.”