‘A Landmark in Musical History’ is John
Luke Rose’s title for the introduction to this
extraordinary piece of theatre. It belongs to
the German tradition of mystical writing,
and a short note on the poem itself by Martin
Swales and Timothy McFarland elucidates
some of Wagner’s literary techniques. Anthony
Negus, who assisted Reginald Goodall on
the WNO production of
Tristan und Isolde,
has contributed a penetrating analysis of the
musical structure of the opera, while Patrick
Carnegy assesses the remarkable solutions
to staging an opera which some argue is best
experienced with your back to the performers.
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'Brilliantly produced and superb value.'
Sunday Times
'All these will provide the new opera-goer with food for thought.'
Daily Telegraph
'Wholehearted recommendation of this valuable new series.'
TLS
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By the same author:
