Ben Heppner: Tristan und Isolde: Welsh National Opera (WNO) - 2012 Update

Update: We provide a Photo Preview here

I did say I would try to keep you updated. However, given that it is 12 months to first night, news is not "coming thick and fast" - as would be expected. Nevertheless, WNO have very kindly provided a little more detailed  information, together with some images of the 2006 revival. I have also included some reviews of the production from 2006.

Sung in German with English surtitles (Welsh in Wales Millennium Centre) First night 19 May 2012.

Photo: Bill Cooper

Tristan                                       Ben Heppner

King Marke                                Matthew Best

Isolde                                        Ann Petersen

Kurwenal                                   Phillip Joll

Melot                                         Simon Thorpe

Brangaene                                Susan Bickley

Shepherd                                  Chorus

Helmsman                                 Chorus

Sailor                                        Chorus

                                               

Conductor                                 Lothar Koenigs

                                               

Original Director                        Yannis Kokkos

Revival Director                         Peter Watson

Designer                                   Yannis Kokkos

Lighting Designer                      Guido Levi

Original Movement Director        Kate Flatt

Assistant Designer                    Muriel Trembleau

Staff Director                            Carmen Jakobi

Co-production with Scottish Opera

Reviews (2006 revival):

Rian Evans

The Guardian,  Monday 2 October 2006 

"Yannis Kokkos's 1993 staging of Tristan und Isolde for Welsh National Opera suggested an integrity of concept that would not date - and so it has proved. In Peter Watson's revival, its classic lines retained all their clarity while allowing Wagner's ecstatic poem to pervade and invade the senses."

Photo: Bill Cooper

George Hall: The Stage, Tuesday 3 October 2006

"Welsh National Opera revives Yannis Kokkos’ 1993 production of Wagner’s transcendent exploration of love and death in a distinguished performance. Kokkos’ self-designed staging is visually highly effective, presenting the opera’s narrative line with exceptional clarity and truth, and the semi-abstract sets have an aptly timeless quality.

This is another show that displays the world-class credentials of the Welsh company. Wagner fans should move heaven and earth to see this outstanding production as it tours over the next few weeks"

Neil Fisher: The Times, October 2006

"Yannis Kokkos’s production is more about suggestive abstraction. At times, the effect is striking — Tristan’s death, on a giant, protruding slab and lit by an eerie green glow, makes for a striking tableau."

Photo: Bill Cooper

More at: Welsh National Opera