Event Details: Notes on Music: Tristan and Isolde

Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet has sung leading soprano roles all over the world. She has appeared on the stages of Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Bordeaux, Berlin, Venice, Bregenz, Florence, Geneva, Naples, Oslo, Strasbourg, Cologne, Nantes, Marseilles, Toulouse, Santiago, and Dallas.

Tristan and Isolde is Richard Wagner's retelling of the epic medieval love story of passion and betrayal. Sir Tristan is a knight who serves King Mark of Cornwall. Isolde, an Irish princess, is to be married against her will to King Mark. Tristan is in charge of transporting her by ship from Ireland to Cornwall. Isolde's mother, a powerful sorceress, has sent two magic potions with Isolde on the journey. The first is a love potion that Isolde is supposed to drink when she is with King Mark so that she will be happy in her marriage with him. The second is a death potion in case the first potion doesn't work.

Isolde has a serving woman named Brangaene who accompanies her on the journey. Isolde is humiliated to be there, and the sailors heap abuse on her. She orders Tristan to come to her, and he obliges. She says that they must drink together, and she secretly orders Brangaene to prepare the death potion for both of them. Brangaene cannot bring herself to do this, and she substitutes the love potion. From the moment that they drink, Tristan and Isolde have no thought but their overwhelming love for one another.

Tristan brings Isolde to King Mark, but the passion that he and Isolde share is too strong for them to resist. They make love while King Mark is away, and are discovered by Melot, who tells King Mark. Melot wounds Tristan and in the end, Tristan dies in Isolde's arms. Needless to say, this score contains some of the most rapturous, sensual, transcendant love music ever written.

Great Isoldes of the past include Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson.

Joseph Illick will tell the story of Tristan and Isolde, play the love music on the piano, talk about Wagner, and weave in Jeanne-Michèle’s singing in at the appropriate moments!

Wagner was a genius and a megalomaniac. He expected his friends to give him whatever he needed: their support, their money, and in some cases, their wives. He had a theater built exclusively for the performance of his own operas, with a unique design in which the orchestra plays from beneath the stage. He also invented new musical instruments to realize his artistic vision.