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44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Mixed Bag, 23 Nov 2000
As an enormously devoted Wagnerian I bought this set as soon it was out. Seen and heard I think more than 100 Tristan's on every continent - but not this one in Munich - this production struck me as humorous first.The opening with the two girls enjoying a kind of Virgin Islands cruise, when they are served cocktails by the servant, is very funny. The singing of Meier and Lipovsek throughout is very strong. After the first act I thought more fantasy could have been achieved in the central love-duet and how it works on this stage. I found it a little underplayed, although well done. The singing of Tristan, alas again an American tenor having many problems with the notoriously difficult German language. Listen to the frequent 'Isolde' outbursts; the pronunciation flattens and it mostly ends as 'Isoldaaaaaa' which gives me a headache. The 'u'-sound like in 'the' - what it is - must be very difficult to achieve at the end of a word for the English speaking world. In the second act we see a DVD mishap: mrs. Meier, who I remember as a very beautiful woman - has been focussed so good that her skin (or is it make up) looks very ugly. After that we see mr. Kollo spitting around some wonderful sounds in his great monologue. I thought this the high point of this set. The orchestra does very well, although not superb. In the third act a very solemn sphere has been achieved - the playing of the hermit's oboe very strong - and the way West portraits his desolation and love-sickness goes very well. I won't quible again about his German. The final moments of the opera - very difficult for all after 3 hours - goes well, althought everybody looks and sings a little tired at the end of the night. Even the orchestra flattens. Well, a mixed bag. It must be possible to give us better performances on DVD of this everlasting interesting drama. The picture quality goes well, although not being exceptional and sometimes the blacks look boxy. But that's the way it goes with DVD. The sound is very good, great bass!
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