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Tristan and Isolde are generally perceived as erotically charged song and musical performance, with a murky philosophy of doom in a petty act. Therefore, the director is considered more important than the director. On the other hand, August Strindberg, for example, liked the work itself: he hated Richard Wagner’s music but appreciated him as a poet.
You feel that too Linus Tunström has respect for the playwright Wagner. This opera is rarely something to see. Not so here in Maja Ravn’s set design and the exciting Tunström landscape. Now the Folkoperan has also been rebuilt with better acoustics and seating comfort. Here, the small orchestra (25 instead of 95-type musicians) is surprisingly full-bodied and gives you goose bumps. Right from the start, where a saxophone strikes the famous Tristan chord …
Folk opera is not the first to turn this huge Wagnerian drama into chamber opera. In fact, the Värmland Opera did that twenty years ago, then as now with a female conductor. This time it was Cecilia Rydinger. Here is Marit Strindlund who successfully leads both the orchestra and the singer, bluntly and with good momentum.
The score is not only slimmed down, but also shortened, especially in the second act, where you go straight to the love duo. However, it is a test of strength in all respects with solid memories. Now in Swedish in a fluent translation by Eva Ström. Julia Sporsén is a lesser sensation like Isolde, with a big and strong game both vocally and stage. With its dramatically Gothic charisma, it responds best to Tunström’s rich and symbolist imagination. Which sometimes gets overwhelming: Here are a couple of mimes that have had to take up too much space.
Jesper Sälls Tristan, on the other hand, feels almost like a normal guy gone crazy. While the two servants here had a bit strange crumbs. As usually happens in Folkoperan. Tristan and Isolde in this vintage are spectacular, thoughtful and at times annoying. But the most stimulating and intoxicating.
