This is a powerful and important video, enjoyed by many, unfortunately a conversation in spanish is heard along most of it., could you not reload it without these voices? Thank you
@NazTboy--Of course you can have both aneurysm and transfiguration, but then I think you would need a glowing spot of light on her face to show some kind of spiritual change and I think you wouldn't have her walking off stage but, instead, sinking to her knees with her eyes open and chin lifted. Anyway, why quibble about the ambiuous direction when you have such a great artist. But little details do count to an audience. To me the aneurysm is just a body function happening.
@abidoful Have you heard her Munich performance? I think that's her best Liebestod! Too bad the staging in Act 1 (I mean of the Munich one) is so god awful!!!
Yes, very naturally and movingly sung and meaningful staging: Tristan had asked her at the end of Act Two: Will you follow me into another land? And, indeed, in this staging she does stagger towards the dark unknown. The blood was a bit medically much, but I guess the director was aiming for death by aneurysm instead of the "transfiguration" Wagner describes.
@ploplisphilin How did they do that--with the blood I mean? It looks so natural! As for death by aneurysm vs. sublimation (or "transfiguration," as it's typically called), why can't there be both. I really don't see her death as devoid of transfiguration here...
The yelling idiot apart...I saw her as Isolde at La Scala, February 2009. Orchestra seats 3rd row, could see every drop of sweat on Barenboim's forehead and hear every intake of breath. Unforgettable night, the violent flow of music was at times overwhelming, crushing me into oblivion. She was a superb, glowing, erotic, human Isolde, but flawed and ageing. She no longer has all the notes, snatching the high Cs in the duet, and just survived the Liebestod. Still, TRISTAN at La Scala, magnificent!
You can just tell that you're getting the last few minutes of what must have been an extraordinary journey. For everyone - cast, orchestra, conductor and audience. Wow - what a night that must have been.
Goofus, his lady must have just woken him up or he was getting lucky behind the cheap seats. There are moments in opera, such as the end of Liebestod, when the audience is so pulled in that they hardly breathe-no shuffling, sneezing, coughing-they're holding their breath-so that when the music stops, there are seconds of dead silence while 2,000 people sit enraptured by the moment-spellbound in silence. That's why people go to the opera.
Love Meir, love Barenboim. However, it seems slow to catch fire, I hate the blood on her face, and then there is that idiot who needs to call attention to HIMSELF by letting loose his "bravo".
This is for you Fernando Casas, if you are still alive. And your co-horts in the crime against me, Plus it is a beautiful performance, I hope that everyone has caught up on the French,
Esta obra de Wagner de mediados del siglo XIX fue rompedora. Hay un antes y un después en la historia de la música, a partir de ella. Hay también versión orquestal de esta MUERTE DE ISOLDA, hecha por el mismo Wagner.
Emocionantísima página toda ella, sobre todo a partir del minuto 3:35
I feel that Waltraud Meier and Nina Stemme may just well be the great Wagerian singers of out time. I'm sure many will disagree, but having heard their liebestods, I'm not sure if I've ever heard better renditions than theirs.
@llamasaresmelly - you may be right with this statement. i have already heard stemme as senta in the vienna staatsoper mid-march but i had to state that her voice became darker to sing senta any longer, her "fach" would be isolde now.
but let us not forget in this enumeration about other isoldes like nilsson (first and foremost) or flagstad...
@lexusis220d Of course we can't forget either of those; let me rephrase my previous statement. I would say that Stemme and Meier make the greatest contemporary Isoldes of today. They surely deserve to be considered among the ranks of Flagsted and Nilsson in this role.
@llamasaresmelly - I am glad that you have qualified like this. and there are still so many good wagner-sopranos that you and i have forgotten about... :))
@llamasaresmelly Neither Stemme or Meier come near Nilsson. Did you hear Nilsson live? I did.....Both Stemme and Meier are fine, but nothing like Birgit.
@rumpwrestler I believe that I revised what I wrote earlier by saying that Meier and Stemme are the best Wagnerian singers of today. As Nilsson died five years ago, she is not exactly a Wagnerian singer of today. Vocally, I would agree she is phenomenal (maybe better than both of those), but based on videos I've seen, she never gave as interesting a dramatic performance. Acting-wise, Stemme and Meier give devastating performances.
She is 52 years old and the greatest Wagnerian soprano. I saw her last year at the Met , she flew in ,arrived at 3 PM and was singing Isolde for 5 hours. she is the
la Isolde cantata al Metro dalla Eaglen ( più o meno sui 120 kg) difficicile il contatto fisico col Tristano- Heppner - anche lui peso massimo! due grossissimi grandissimi cantanti....
ma questa Isolde ha tutto: presenza scenica, voce e coerenza col personaggio , che doveva essere la classica biondona( non si capisce perchè la donzella doveva essere per forza Bionda!!) angelica e forte..
Thanky you so much for uploading the video. I have seen this opera at the tv broadcast on arte - live from the Scala. Just one word: wonderful and great!!! I love the voice frrom Mrs. Meier. When she sings I always think: ok so it has to bee!
Tengo el honor de haberla visto como Isolda en el Real en Madrid en 2008 y puedo decir que ha sido la experiencia más bonita que he tenido jamás en una ópera. Nunca olvidaré a todo el teatro en pie al final. ¡Meier es Isolda!
I love the painful look the conductor gives when some jackal shouts out "Bravo" a nanosecond after the last note of this sublime ending. A respectful many seconds pause to savor the beauty is called for.
@vk342 I guess Mediterranean's can't contain their enthusiasm. I'd find myself dumbfounded and drained after watching this, that's how good she is. My psyche would need time to recharge, like a battery.
At least this audience waited for the last note. The barbarian audience at Sydney seem to have a contest to see who can be the first to start clapping, often 20 or more bars before the last note. It makes you want to scream, "Shut the %*&$ up!!"
Yes, in Barenboim's most recent book there is actually a chapter in which he discusses the fact that the silences right before and after a piece of music are, themselves, part of the music. I wonder if the Italians at La Scala properly understand the peculiarly Wagnerian silence that is required here?
Just beautiful. This is probably what Wagner's idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk was about. Waltraud Meier represents music, lyrics and drama - the best possible each. I love her Isolde but still: as Kundry she played in her own league as an actress, and it appears to me that also her voice was more adapted to Kundry than it is to Isolde. But anyway THANKS for this performance.
P.S. who is responsible for the french translation of the Liebestod? It really has nothing to do with the original meaning.
Do I alone hear this melody, which wonderfully and softly, lamenting delight, telling it all, mildly reconciling sounds out of him, invades me swings upwards, sweetly resonating rings around me?
i definately want to watch this oper.... i'm reading the novel Tristan by Thomas Man and it's so touching.... inspiring and depressed at the same time....
Wagner, "Tristan", Barenboim, Chéreau... Et le miracle d'une interprétation bouleversante se produit en 2007 à la Scala. Le premier enregistrement wagnérien mythique du 21ème siècle.
Ian Storey et Waltraud Meier incarnent Tristan et Isolde avec une humanité qui n'avait jamais été imaginée, osée auparavant.
J'adore Birgit Nilsson. En termes de moyens vocaux, elle est insurpassable. Quant à ses Liebestod (avec Böhm mais aussi avec Solti), ils sont magnifiques. Cependant, je trouve ses interprétations plus froides, plus marmoréennes que celles de Waltraud Meier qui est moins "mythologique", plus humaine, plus tragédienne aussi. Dans les deux cas, on est dans les plus hautes sphères.
on peut ne pas aimer Wagner pour des raisons "contemporaines....mais comment ne pas etre extraordinairement emu par cette aria qui donne la chair de poule...extraordinaire Waltraud...un enregistrement de référence au 21 eme siècle!!
She's a brilliant actress and vocalist, but the production designer or stage director or whomever is responsible for the blood gushing from her head ought to be outcast from the theater. She's supposed to die from a broken heart, not a gunshot to the left frontal lobe.
Isolde's death is not only a scene of death but also a scene of metamorphosis. The blood which flows of her forehead evokes directly tristan's wound. They are actually only one being when it's finished. Considering Isolde as a woman who just dies from a broken heart is an error, it's not the meaning of the libretto.
I think it's amazing to compare this performance with the one she gave in Munich. Here she sings it as if the lifeblood is draining from her...literally; it's beautifully forlorn. In Munich she was rapturous and uplifting, the voice was much bigger. She's true to the character every time but can alter her vocalizations to suit the direction of the production. She's simply superb.
I think there was a tiny tube that was attached somewhere under her costume and it was fed up into her wig and hid under some makeup. The blood was probably released via a squib or electronically behind the stage. I think at about 1:43 she becomes aware it's gushing blood and she smiles a bit. Perhaps it tickled her.
Ain't that the truth? I listened to the Prelude and Liebestod for the first time a few weeks ago after smoking some weed.......WHOA, one of the most profound listening experiences I've ever had and the silence after was deafening.
My professor explained it this way: She cannot contain the music/emotion and so her veins open up by themselves; in the ned she is gesturing to the orchestra to stop the music because she is cannot take it anymore. I kinda like this meta-theater analysis as Wagner from the very beginning had the reputation of driving people insane with his harmonies. In any case, Meier is the by far the most engaging Isolde I have ever heard.
wow! that's insane! I guess it's humanly possible, but it looks like she's just collapsing from sadness here... such a beautiful set and whatnot, I suppose exploding veins would be a bit much for some's experience :)
i like the idea of her not being able to stand the music -it is intense enought- but i dont think she is gesturing to the orchestra to stop. i felt she was reaching out for Tristan to take her hand imagining they would walk together, but he is dead or dying so she walks without him, but still reaching. She is moving into a realm where nothing is left except her love-emotion and in that sense he is still holding her hand, we just cant see it...
dont get me wrong, im not spiritual in 'real life'! i am just getting into the emotional world of the music - thanks totally to Ms Meier ! bravo to her (but not to the emotional weirdos who shouted bravo 3 miliseconds after the music ended !)
Well, it's a very "romantic" concept of the music possessing the body, dying through/in love, wasting away - Wagner called this "Isolde's transcendance", the music transcends her, makes her body implode. I think the suggestive streak of blood is a very smart staging of this concept.
Stunning! Absolutely breathtaking--my chest and throat just tightened up with emotion on hearing and seeing her. Those final seconds before the collapse--sublime! Beautiful conducting. Thank you for posting, Onegin65
I know I have this aria favorited already, but I can't resist this one. She gets to sing this fine music and play the drama that is blood pouring down her face, too... PRICELESS!!! I would have asked for a complete wig soak of blood if it were me:).
Oh, the astonishment and expression of wonder on her beautiful face when she notices the blood trickling down her cheek while she's pouring out these heavenly sounds-absolutely heart-rendering. I need a box of tissues!
If its the later, then they hide two little packets of false blood under her wig and then she presses a button hidden in her coat that is connected to a wire that runs up the back of her neck and scalp to the packets under the wig and then it pierces the packets and the blood runs.
Amazing. After 30 years on stage and with a such a varied repertoire you'd think she'd be somewhat frayed at this point. Not a chance. She still looks fantastic, too.
Are you speaking of the character or how they actually got the fake blood to run down her face in this production? If its the former, given the character is supposed to die suddenly and that in this production blood is running down her head (its not in the original script), its possible that the character Isolde had a hemangioma.
That was so beautifully directed, I was so annoyed as I was in Milan when this was on but I couldn't get a cancellation. But I know that had I seen it I would have been in floods of tears at the end, so beautiful. I also agree that it is good to see Isolde die for a change (macabre as it sounds), it almost gives an emotional release from the dramatic tension that by the end of the liebestot has been stretched to breaking point. The release of tension is at once uplifting and devastating.
There are times in this video where she looks like Joan Sutherland. If only she sang it at that level. She's good, but I just came from a video of Jessye Norman singing it and this underwhelms me a bit as a result.
Waltraud Meier, one of the great Wagnerian mezzo sopranos, sings and acts with precision in what I see as the perfect Liebestod performance. I have never seen it acted better, and I have longed to see Isolde actually die at the end, instead of standing there, just gawking forward like so many other performances. Meier has it here, her high register is perfect, and her acting seals the deal...Her final moments are heartbreaking and beautiful. She IS our generation's Isolde.
This is my favourite opera of them all and I just can't help but cry, everytime I hear this, hauntingly and agonisingly poetic and beautiful. Soul stiring music!
She is such a superb actress. The camera couldn't have been closer. There was not a hint of artifice in her performance - in spite of the huge physical effort of singing this incredible music.
Regarding Barenboim's reaction at the end: there were a huge amount of 'bravo', which in Italian is masculine and was therefore addressed to Barenboim. Soon after, you can hear a woman shouting 'bravi', in the plural that is. Sorry to disappoint you, but nobody (as far as this video goes) shouted 'brava', to Waldraud that is. In Italy we just don't use 'bravo' generically as it happens abroad. Nevertheless, she would have definitively deserved many!
I have seen Meier and Barenboim two weeks ago in Berlin - stellar! But what makes clip so unique is Barenboim's reaction when he has just closed the last sound, still caught in the intensity of the dying music when - without a second of stillness - the first Bravas burst out. He seems to shout Ouch! in irritation and defense, yet gets the appreciation of the crowd, all this going on in his face within the fraction of a second. Barenboim for me without doubt one of the greatest living musicians!
When she and I were both students in Wurzburg, the first time I heard her in a lesson whe had the darkest alto voice I had ever heard in my young years. When she went to Koln and retrained in the soprano rep I thought to myself she will never make it. We've sung together a couple of times over the years and she is always amazing.
Nietzsche's favourite...
BlackenedAlice 2 months ago
This is a powerful and important video, enjoyed by many, unfortunately a conversation in spanish is heard along most of it., could you not reload it without these voices? Thank you
selliottmunro 2 months ago
This is definitely my favorite version of the Liebestod! Just wish I could edit out the moron who shouts "bravo" the second it ends!!
loveroftheclassics1 3 months ago
Ty Onegin for posting yet another gem.
paulostroff99 4 months ago
I wish i could see that
Napoleontas 4 months ago
perfect
sttar1982 4 months ago
Imposible encontrar tanta belleza , esto es poesia pura, donde el papel es Wagner y el lapiz, o tal vez el pincel, Meier.Brava !!1
mrdarkeyes1987 5 months ago
Quienes fueron los 23 caraduras que mandaron no me gusta?
fraanedlp 5 months ago
@NazTboy--Of course you can have both aneurysm and transfiguration, but then I think you would need a glowing spot of light on her face to show some kind of spiritual change and I think you wouldn't have her walking off stage but, instead, sinking to her knees with her eyes open and chin lifted. Anyway, why quibble about the ambiuous direction when you have such a great artist. But little details do count to an audience. To me the aneurysm is just a body function happening.
ploplisphilin 5 months ago
@abidoful Have you heard her Munich performance? I think that's her best Liebestod! Too bad the staging in Act 1 (I mean of the Munich one) is so god awful!!!
NazTb0y 5 months ago
Horrible!
mrantiquedealer 6 months ago
@mrantiquedealer vos sos horrible!!!
fraanedlp 5 months ago
voix superbe, équilibrée, intense en émotion, magnifique Isolde
marc3350 8 months ago
la banda sonora para un corazón roto.... es demasiado poderosa esta aria...
Francisco78ish 8 months ago
@Francisco78ish Es el sacrificio de amor más grande que alguien puede hacer por su ser amado.
Onsacredground 7 months ago
this made me cry
newFranzFerencLiszt 8 months ago 3
Yes, very naturally and movingly sung and meaningful staging: Tristan had asked her at the end of Act Two: Will you follow me into another land? And, indeed, in this staging she does stagger towards the dark unknown. The blood was a bit medically much, but I guess the director was aiming for death by aneurysm instead of the "transfiguration" Wagner describes.
ploplisphilin 9 months ago
@ploplisphilin How did they do that--with the blood I mean? It looks so natural! As for death by aneurysm vs. sublimation (or "transfiguration," as it's typically called), why can't there be both. I really don't see her death as devoid of transfiguration here...
NazTb0y 5 months ago
The yelling idiot apart...I saw her as Isolde at La Scala, February 2009. Orchestra seats 3rd row, could see every drop of sweat on Barenboim's forehead and hear every intake of breath. Unforgettable night, the violent flow of music was at times overwhelming, crushing me into oblivion. She was a superb, glowing, erotic, human Isolde, but flawed and ageing. She no longer has all the notes, snatching the high Cs in the duet, and just survived the Liebestod. Still, TRISTAN at La Scala, magnificent!
philipc67 1 year ago
You can just tell that you're getting the last few minutes of what must have been an extraordinary journey. For everyone - cast, orchestra, conductor and audience. Wow - what a night that must have been.
damianjb1 1 year ago
Goofus, his lady must have just woken him up or he was getting lucky behind the cheap seats. There are moments in opera, such as the end of Liebestod, when the audience is so pulled in that they hardly breathe-no shuffling, sneezing, coughing-they're holding their breath-so that when the music stops, there are seconds of dead silence while 2,000 people sit enraptured by the moment-spellbound in silence. That's why people go to the opera.
Aerohog1 1 year ago 3
is this overlayed with a mexican speaker/???? im so fucking high!!!
PrincessUnicorn69 1 year ago
@PrincessUnicorn69 i hear it too. it's fucking irritating
mutinyinheav3n 1 year ago
@PrincessUnicorn69 I hear something like radio chatter coming over the right track too.
mmarks4 3 months ago
I never knew death could be so beautiful ... :)
Szopenysta 1 year ago 4
Love Meir, love Barenboim. However, it seems slow to catch fire, I hate the blood on her face, and then there is that idiot who needs to call attention to HIMSELF by letting loose his "bravo".
hchristopher1 1 year ago
si, tipico scala, non hanno rispetto, solo snob tutti...mi dispiace ma in Bayreuth non credo che c'e simile in rispettabilita... diverse culture...
wagner non e per italiani.
Nbtn86 1 year ago
si, tipico scala, non hanno rispetto, solo snob tutti...mi dispiace ma in Bayreuth non credo che c'e simile in rispettabilita... diverse culture...
wagner non e per italiani.
Nbtn86 1 year ago
Waltraud Meier, a great DIVA, a great and powerful voice, you can reach the sky...
JacinthoPilla 1 year ago
"when some jackal shouts out Bravo"
Jackal?
The dog-like wild animal?
The military vehicle of the British Army?
A nicer word for jackass?
criscros7 1 year ago
Left channel: Waltraud Meier.
Right channel: People talking.
criscros7 1 year ago
ma state in silenzio quando finisce un brano così sublime massa di coglioni!
abcabc123456123456 1 year ago
Expression on Daniel Barenboim's face at the end - PRICELESS.....
Totally understand his expression...
superclarenceboi 1 year ago
The most beautiful music ever written. Good old Wagner.
paul6316 1 year ago
Pity that some of her high notes are slightly flat.
rumpwrestler 1 year ago
i love how the strings come in waves toward 4:00 and then come in this amazing crest at 4:48 its like a musical orgasm!
Babs22h 1 year ago
Impeccable!
elend56 1 year ago
This is for you Fernando Casas, if you are still alive. And your co-horts in the crime against me, Plus it is a beautiful performance, I hope that everyone has caught up on the French,
mixhaeld 1 year ago
Esta obra de Wagner de mediados del siglo XIX fue rompedora. Hay un antes y un después en la historia de la música, a partir de ella. Hay también versión orquestal de esta MUERTE DE ISOLDA, hecha por el mismo Wagner.
Emocionantísima página toda ella, sobre todo a partir del minuto 3:35
LEONCODAJJ 1 year ago
Eres única Waltraud
Hesperetusa 1 year ago
Awesome
paulostroff99 1 year ago
abfab!! one of the ideal isoldes to me. at the end of may i'm going to listen to her in vienna as ortrud. i'm looking forward to it very much...
lexusis220d 1 year ago
I feel that Waltraud Meier and Nina Stemme may just well be the great Wagerian singers of out time. I'm sure many will disagree, but having heard their liebestods, I'm not sure if I've ever heard better renditions than theirs.
llamasaresmelly 1 year ago
@llamasaresmelly - you may be right with this statement. i have already heard stemme as senta in the vienna staatsoper mid-march but i had to state that her voice became darker to sing senta any longer, her "fach" would be isolde now.
but let us not forget in this enumeration about other isoldes like nilsson (first and foremost) or flagstad...
lexusis220d 1 year ago
@lexusis220d Of course we can't forget either of those; let me rephrase my previous statement. I would say that Stemme and Meier make the greatest contemporary Isoldes of today. They surely deserve to be considered among the ranks of Flagsted and Nilsson in this role.
llamasaresmelly 1 year ago
@llamasaresmelly - I am glad that you have qualified like this. and there are still so many good wagner-sopranos that you and i have forgotten about... :))
lexusis220d 1 year ago
@llamasaresmelly Neither Stemme or Meier come near Nilsson. Did you hear Nilsson live? I did.....Both Stemme and Meier are fine, but nothing like Birgit.
rumpwrestler 1 year ago
@rumpwrestler I believe that I revised what I wrote earlier by saying that Meier and Stemme are the best Wagnerian singers of today. As Nilsson died five years ago, she is not exactly a Wagnerian singer of today. Vocally, I would agree she is phenomenal (maybe better than both of those), but based on videos I've seen, she never gave as interesting a dramatic performance. Acting-wise, Stemme and Meier give devastating performances.
llamasaresmelly 1 year ago 3
Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
netrebko1224 1 year ago
She is 52 years old and the greatest Wagnerian soprano. I saw her last year at the Met , she flew in ,arrived at 3 PM and was singing Isolde for 5 hours. she is the
greatest at this time.
icihiboo 1 year ago
Thank you Olaig - beautiful quality!
jopaism 1 year ago
Bravissima!
Rodrigodbf 1 year ago
la Isolde cantata al Metro dalla Eaglen ( più o meno sui 120 kg) difficicile il contatto fisico col Tristano- Heppner - anche lui peso massimo! due grossissimi grandissimi cantanti....
ma questa Isolde ha tutto: presenza scenica, voce e coerenza col personaggio , che doveva essere la classica biondona( non si capisce perchè la donzella doveva essere per forza Bionda!!) angelica e forte..
franco96544 1 year ago
just love her!!! outstanding performance, not only singing but also acting!! a unit!
she seems to have some difficulties with her voice sometimes..but as long she interprets like that (!!) i don't care
MsOperafreak 1 year ago
Une pure merveille ! C'est de l'Art avec un A majuscule !
MrLaurent45 1 year ago
She almost reachs Flagstad! Excellent!
avenaoat 1 year ago
Thanky you so much for uploading the video. I have seen this opera at the tv broadcast on arte - live from the Scala. Just one word: wonderful and great!!! I love the voice frrom Mrs. Meier. When she sings I always think: ok so it has to bee!
Nibelungenfrau 1 year ago 3
Waltraut Meier is the Greta Garbo of Wagner operas - The Divine.
OfficerMurdoch 1 year ago 7
This has been flagged as spam show
the original's extraordinary look. Check this film T O T A L L Y F R E E at Movie Watcher [dot] US
elliottheinetv 2 years ago
Tengo el honor de haberla visto como Isolda en el Real en Madrid en 2008 y puedo decir que ha sido la experiencia más bonita que he tenido jamás en una ópera. Nunca olvidaré a todo el teatro en pie al final. ¡Meier es Isolda!
bestofopera1 2 years ago 3
actualmente es la mejor, ( para mí )
58wotan 2 years ago 18
@58wotan Has visto a Jessye Norman con Herbert Von Karajan en el Festival de Salzburgo.
Onsacredground 7 months ago
@Onsacredground , no la he visto, pero Norman es buena también, aunque para mi gusto, Meier es mi favorita, ah, por cierto, soy 58wotan
wotancat1 6 months ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Nobody sings this better than JESSYE NORMAN!!!
jcrogers14 2 years ago
Yes, Flagstad, Nilsson, Meier, Moedl, Varnay...
hydra333 2 years ago 4
Actually, the end is not called "Liebestod", that is just what everyone calls it. But Wagner himself didn't call it like that.
Heard this lady once before, also in Tristan und Isolde and I like her very much, although I am not a full-hearted Wagner Fan.
ElisabettaVS 2 years ago
I love the painful look the conductor gives when some jackal shouts out "Bravo" a nanosecond after the last note of this sublime ending. A respectful many seconds pause to savor the beauty is called for.
greenstboy 2 years ago 61
@greenstboy
That's because it's an Italian audience. They're almost as bad as us Greeks. We would have shouted before the last note.
vk342 1 year ago 2
@vk342 I totally agree...
LazarosPapadop 1 year ago
@vk342 I guess Mediterranean's can't contain their enthusiasm. I'd find myself dumbfounded and drained after watching this, that's how good she is. My psyche would need time to recharge, like a battery.
ShamusMacGuffin 1 year ago
@ShamusMacGuffin I understand and sympathise.
vk342 1 year ago
@greenstboy
At least this audience waited for the last note. The barbarian audience at Sydney seem to have a contest to see who can be the first to start clapping, often 20 or more bars before the last note. It makes you want to scream, "Shut the %*&$ up!!"
Aussiemarco 1 year ago
Yes, in Barenboim's most recent book there is actually a chapter in which he discusses the fact that the silences right before and after a piece of music are, themselves, part of the music. I wonder if the Italians at La Scala properly understand the peculiarly Wagnerian silence that is required here?
SteveNelsonBrigade 1 year ago 3
@SteveNelsonBrigade
Absolutely. That was disgusting. That goofball ruined that moment for the whole room.
flylooper 1 year ago
@greenstboy especially because it is a WOMAN singing - so where was the "bravA"?
gadella1985 1 year ago
@greenstboy He looks as if the concert master dropped his violin during the final chord
b0ttomzone 1 year ago
@greenstboy
I am totally with you !
Norbert161165 9 months ago
Divine!
LucasCarl 2 years ago
wow , portamento up to last note. Never heard that before.
DivaDeb1234 2 years ago
llevo llorando como un gilipollas 10 minutos mientras veo una y otra vez esta actuación...siento el término pero esto es sencillamente acojonante.
jotavandyck 2 years ago
Mon Dieu!! ahora sé porque algunos la concideran la mejor soprano del mundo,
Breezeway3 2 years ago
pero es mezzo!
emalag999 2 years ago
J'aimerais être ce sang qui s'échappe de son crâne.
ThePursuance 2 years ago
Just beautiful. This is probably what Wagner's idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk was about. Waltraud Meier represents music, lyrics and drama - the best possible each. I love her Isolde but still: as Kundry she played in her own league as an actress, and it appears to me that also her voice was more adapted to Kundry than it is to Isolde. But anyway THANKS for this performance.
P.S. who is responsible for the french translation of the Liebestod? It really has nothing to do with the original meaning.
Hoellenrose 2 years ago
supreme delight!
vonspre 2 years ago 3
Do I alone hear this melody, which wonderfully and softly, lamenting delight, telling it all, mildly reconciling sounds out of him, invades me swings upwards, sweetly resonating rings around me?
vonspre 2 years ago
i definately want to watch this oper.... i'm reading the novel Tristan by Thomas Man and it's so touching.... inspiring and depressed at the same time....
kleinelydia 2 years ago
waltraud es el gran milagro wagneriano, ¡qué sensibilidad y qué saber decir las frases más portentosos!.¡Es Isolde!
gonzalo1374 2 years ago 2
completamente de acuerdo contigo, y en mi opinión le sigue Stemme, hoy en día
58wotan 2 years ago
Wagner, "Tristan", Barenboim, Chéreau... Et le miracle d'une interprétation bouleversante se produit en 2007 à la Scala. Le premier enregistrement wagnérien mythique du 21ème siècle.
Ian Storey et Waltraud Meier incarnent Tristan et Isolde avec une humanité qui n'avait jamais été imaginée, osée auparavant.
mplehaire 2 years ago 3
Mouais...Enfin moi elle m'a pas donné la chair de poule comme Birgit Nilsson sait le faire a chaque fois que j'écoute son Liebestod à elle.
musicsavage 2 years ago
J'adore Birgit Nilsson. En termes de moyens vocaux, elle est insurpassable. Quant à ses Liebestod (avec Böhm mais aussi avec Solti), ils sont magnifiques. Cependant, je trouve ses interprétations plus froides, plus marmoréennes que celles de Waltraud Meier qui est moins "mythologique", plus humaine, plus tragédienne aussi. Dans les deux cas, on est dans les plus hautes sphères.
mplehaire 2 years ago
Accordé ;-)
musicsavage 2 years ago
on peut ne pas aimer Wagner pour des raisons "contemporaines....mais comment ne pas etre extraordinairement emu par cette aria qui donne la chair de poule...extraordinaire Waltraud...un enregistrement de référence au 21 eme siècle!!
nanard111 2 years ago 3
She's a brilliant actress and vocalist, but the production designer or stage director or whomever is responsible for the blood gushing from her head ought to be outcast from the theater. She's supposed to die from a broken heart, not a gunshot to the left frontal lobe.
MSMillerNYC 2 years ago
Lol :-) I agree with you.
Feathersandploom 2 years ago
Isolde's death is not only a scene of death but also a scene of metamorphosis. The blood which flows of her forehead evokes directly tristan's wound. They are actually only one being when it's finished. Considering Isolde as a woman who just dies from a broken heart is an error, it's not the meaning of the libretto.
mplehaire 2 years ago 3
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MSMillerNYC 1 year ago
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wolfgangtheophilus 2 years ago
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wolfgangtheophilus 2 years ago
If you think this is good ( and it is ) listen to Margret Price.
gasmeter47 2 years ago
ShamusMacGuffin: Thank you very much!
lucianacantares 2 years ago
I think it's amazing to compare this performance with the one she gave in Munich. Here she sings it as if the lifeblood is draining from her...literally; it's beautifully forlorn. In Munich she was rapturous and uplifting, the voice was much bigger. She's true to the character every time but can alter her vocalizations to suit the direction of the production. She's simply superb.
ShamusMacGuffin 2 years ago 3
A wonderful liebestod! After Flagstad and Nilssohn,this and the Christa Ludwig earn very high marks as well! Brava! TY.
paulostroff99 2 years ago
I wonder how that blood effect was made. Could someone tell me?
lucianacantares 2 years ago
I think there was a tiny tube that was attached somewhere under her costume and it was fed up into her wig and hid under some makeup. The blood was probably released via a squib or electronically behind the stage. I think at about 1:43 she becomes aware it's gushing blood and she smiles a bit. Perhaps it tickled her.
ShamusMacGuffin 2 years ago
Well, at least they didn't clap BEORE the music ended, which usually happens at the met at the end of walkure.
tristanchord85 2 years ago
ich hätte lieber deutsche Untertitel... da kann ich sehr wenig heraushören.
ViolaNinja 2 years ago
She's just the BEST!!!
LaBartoli 2 years ago 2
Para poucos, muito poucos!!
CabritoGD 2 years ago
One sees Barenboim frowning at the instant "bravos" ... this isn't a football match.
Her interpretation is truly moving.
To quote Woody Allen: Wagner's music is much better than it sounds ...!
mullimix 2 years ago 2
I think he assumed the audience would refrain from applause for a moment to savor it. It surprised me too.
ShamusMacGuffin 2 years ago
Amazing interpretation....but the at the end she´s a BIT out of tune....)= but a very touching Tristan
singingisall 2 years ago
IN MUNICH SHE WAS BETTER!
ICH LIEBE Waltraud.
GDARAKOS 2 years ago
thank you so much for posting. to me it is one of the most touching tristans I've ever seen. thank you so much to all artists.
renamunich 2 years ago
I hate all of these "bravo", although the music is not finished. Please respect just 5 seconds of silence and shut up!
Silence after Wagner's music is Wagner's music !
Boulezitude 2 years ago 5
Ain't that the truth? I listened to the Prelude and Liebestod for the first time a few weeks ago after smoking some weed.......WHOA, one of the most profound listening experiences I've ever had and the silence after was deafening.
ShamusMacGuffin 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Why can't directors keep their half-baked ideas away from the music?
tetrabiblos 2 years ago
Wspaniałe!!!
ziemekziem71 2 years ago
Really? I thought the magic that bound her to Tristan ment that when one died so did the other.
Maybe its just a differance in staging. Either way... you cant go wrong with the music.
mpsnknox 2 years ago
A wonderful performance I saw this at the MET with Voight and this is far better, I do not understand the blood... Thanks for posting.
exposfan69 2 years ago
She is dying....
mpsnknox 2 years ago
Actually ,it's Tristan's blood. She suicides by throwing herself in the sea.
Silmacar 2 years ago
obviously not in this version..
klickenpod 2 years ago
My professor explained it this way: She cannot contain the music/emotion and so her veins open up by themselves; in the ned she is gesturing to the orchestra to stop the music because she is cannot take it anymore. I kinda like this meta-theater analysis as Wagner from the very beginning had the reputation of driving people insane with his harmonies. In any case, Meier is the by far the most engaging Isolde I have ever heard.
KazBerlin 2 years ago
wow! that's insane! I guess it's humanly possible, but it looks like she's just collapsing from sadness here... such a beautiful set and whatnot, I suppose exploding veins would be a bit much for some's experience :)
klickenpod 2 years ago 2
i like the idea of her not being able to stand the music -it is intense enought- but i dont think she is gesturing to the orchestra to stop. i felt she was reaching out for Tristan to take her hand imagining they would walk together, but he is dead or dying so she walks without him, but still reaching. She is moving into a realm where nothing is left except her love-emotion and in that sense he is still holding her hand, we just cant see it...
hormigabega 2 years ago
dont get me wrong, im not spiritual in 'real life'! i am just getting into the emotional world of the music - thanks totally to Ms Meier ! bravo to her (but not to the emotional weirdos who shouted bravo 3 miliseconds after the music ended !)
hormigabega 2 years ago
Well, it's a very "romantic" concept of the music possessing the body, dying through/in love, wasting away - Wagner called this "Isolde's transcendance", the music transcends her, makes her body implode. I think the suggestive streak of blood is a very smart staging of this concept.
artistemaudit 2 years ago
This performance and production is absolutely heartrending stuff. It is just wonderful, a complete revelation. Waltraud Meier IS Isolde.
KingofKingsV2 2 years ago
nice
schopenhauerms 2 years ago
wonderful!
Zarathustre 2 years ago
mesmerizing, except for the quick applause
ryanmozart 3 years ago
Masterpiece!
Barenboim looks as though they hit him with a frying-pan. The audience didn't render the music even half a second's silence. Quel horreur.
paulatwe 3 years ago 2
I wasn't expecting it, but I think this is the best version of this that I've heard.
hlbessinger 3 years ago
Such music is the God within us speaking.
FERENCEFF 3 years ago
Stunning! Absolutely breathtaking--my chest and throat just tightened up with emotion on hearing and seeing her. Those final seconds before the collapse--sublime! Beautiful conducting. Thank you for posting, Onegin65
dolcefico 3 years ago 6
The Best version after Birgit Nilsson, just my opinion... :o))
barroso68 3 years ago 3
Kirsten Flagstad wasn't chopped liver, you know
NKWIAM 2 years ago
I know I have this aria favorited already, but I can't resist this one. She gets to sing this fine music and play the drama that is blood pouring down her face, too... PRICELESS!!! I would have asked for a complete wig soak of blood if it were me:).
urgrad03 3 years ago
Very affecting! Thanks for posting!
willrobinson1229 3 years ago 3
I love the conductor's reaction when he closes the piece.
wangaling 3 years ago 6
Oh, the astonishment and expression of wonder on her beautiful face when she notices the blood trickling down her cheek while she's pouring out these heavenly sounds-absolutely heart-rendering. I need a box of tissues!
rrobicon 3 years ago 3
magnifique !!!!!!!!!!!!!
LitaneiD343 3 years ago 4
If its the later, then they hide two little packets of false blood under her wig and then she presses a button hidden in her coat that is connected to a wire that runs up the back of her neck and scalp to the packets under the wig and then it pierces the packets and the blood runs.
EmilyGreene1984 3 years ago
Oh, I see. It is set under the wig!
It is a very shocking scene anyway.
Thanx.
bokensdorf 3 years ago
She is "Isolde"...
hulysse2000 3 years ago 2
Amazing. After 30 years on stage and with a such a varied repertoire you'd think she'd be somewhat frayed at this point. Not a chance. She still looks fantastic, too.
Chrysothemis 3 years ago 2
pardon me as I cry my eyes out ;_;
i'm so profoundly moved.
klickenpod 3 years ago 2
i know me too :(
goobleglob 3 years ago
BRAVO !!!
lababoc 3 years ago 3
Waltraut Meier, die Wagnerinterpretin schlecht hin...ein Genuss!
PierreChemnitz 3 years ago 3
Does anyone know how she gets blood on her face?
bokensdorf 3 years ago
Are you speaking of the character or how they actually got the fake blood to run down her face in this production? If its the former, given the character is supposed to die suddenly and that in this production blood is running down her head (its not in the original script), its possible that the character Isolde had a hemangioma.
EmilyGreene1984 3 years ago
That was so beautifully directed, I was so annoyed as I was in Milan when this was on but I couldn't get a cancellation. But I know that had I seen it I would have been in floods of tears at the end, so beautiful. I also agree that it is good to see Isolde die for a change (macabre as it sounds), it almost gives an emotional release from the dramatic tension that by the end of the liebestot has been stretched to breaking point. The release of tension is at once uplifting and devastating.
Timbris83 3 years ago
*Liebestod
Timbris83 3 years ago
There are times in this video where she looks like Joan Sutherland. If only she sang it at that level. She's good, but I just came from a video of Jessye Norman singing it and this underwhelms me a bit as a result.
Iareto 3 years ago
Waltraud Meier, one of the great Wagnerian mezzo sopranos, sings and acts with precision in what I see as the perfect Liebestod performance. I have never seen it acted better, and I have longed to see Isolde actually die at the end, instead of standing there, just gawking forward like so many other performances. Meier has it here, her high register is perfect, and her acting seals the deal...Her final moments are heartbreaking and beautiful. She IS our generation's Isolde.
robertcarito 3 years ago 7
I couldn't agree more.
cephalicus 3 years ago
dramatic sopran!!!!!!!!
koyly01 3 years ago
Is she a mezzo or soprano?, Does a mezzo can sing this amazing aria?
mezzopera7 3 years ago
I believe she´s a mezzo soprano
yenirakiodalisque 3 years ago 4
This is my favourite opera of them all and I just can't help but cry, everytime I hear this, hauntingly and agonisingly poetic and beautiful. Soul stiring music!
becikh 3 years ago
A superb performance by Meier and the orchestra directed by maestro Barenboim!
Thank goodness it was recorded so that we may enjoy Wagner at his best.
Tube4ns 3 years ago 3
Sensational! Right up there with the very best. Brava! TY.
paulostroff99 3 years ago 2
i love this aria and i find she's the isolde. one word : bravo!!!
johanna33560 3 years ago
WOW!! Brava!! : )
golfroylan 3 years ago 3
Waltraud is the Isolde of my dreams. I would share a potion with her any day even if it meant getting stabbed as a chaser.
robertchoward 3 years ago
She is such a superb actress. The camera couldn't have been closer. There was not a hint of artifice in her performance - in spite of the huge physical effort of singing this incredible music.
owenboi66 3 years ago
ps. le scenografie di peduzzi sono quanto di meglio ci si potesse aspettare. davvero splendide.
francesco11arc 3 years ago
una produzione bellissima. direzione, scenografie, interpreti, regìa tutto splendido!
francesco11arc 3 years ago
Regarding Barenboim's reaction at the end: there were a huge amount of 'bravo', which in Italian is masculine and was therefore addressed to Barenboim. Soon after, you can hear a woman shouting 'bravi', in the plural that is. Sorry to disappoint you, but nobody (as far as this video goes) shouted 'brava', to Waldraud that is. In Italy we just don't use 'bravo' generically as it happens abroad. Nevertheless, she would have definitively deserved many!
pianoroberto56 3 years ago
Anybody knowing if this ARTE production is on sale at ARTE? Or other resources?
LH419 3 years ago
I have seen Meier and Barenboim two weeks ago in Berlin - stellar! But what makes clip so unique is Barenboim's reaction when he has just closed the last sound, still caught in the intensity of the dying music when - without a second of stillness - the first Bravas burst out. He seems to shout Ouch! in irritation and defense, yet gets the appreciation of the crowd, all this going on in his face within the fraction of a second. Barenboim for me without doubt one of the greatest living musicians!
LH419 3 years ago
When she and I were both students in Wurzburg, the first time I heard her in a lesson whe had the darkest alto voice I had ever heard in my young years. When she went to Koln and retrained in the soprano rep I thought to myself she will never make it. We've sung together a couple of times over the years and she is always amazing.
spintobear 3 years ago
i think she is the #1 artist in the world today given the repertoire and what she brings to it
aleesa4 3 years ago 2
WM is great (she is 51!!) but not the orchestra. La scala is not what it used to be
promthjr 3 years ago
This is very compelling viewing. I get goosebumps watching the brilliance and appreciating the virtuosity. Waltraud's performance is unsurpassed.