From a musical point of view, 2008 is going to go down in my opera diary as the year I finally had my TRISTAN UND ISOLDE revelation. (Above, Lilli Lehmann as Isolde)
TRISTAN was always a problematic opera for me. The first time I saw it performed was a monumental experience: the opening night of a new production at the Met in 1971 with Birgit Nilsson and Jess Thomas in the title roles, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. After that I developed a mental block about the opera; I found it impossible to listen to it on broadcasts (even if singers I loved like Jon Vickers, Hildegard Behrens, Tatiana Troyanos or Dame Gwyneth Jones were involved) and I was never able to concentrate on a recording of it, try as I might.
In March 2008 I decided I really needed to get this elusive opera into its rightful place in my repertoire. Attending a performance which was not altogether perfect (but which featured an especially strong male cast and James Levine's excellent conducting) gave me the needed impetus and also solved the riddle of my Tristan-phobia: it has to be experienced in the theatre.
So TRISTAN was at the top of my list of things to see this season and I greatly enjoyed Daniel Barenboim's reading of the score and (again) the impressive male singers in early December. Then the surprise announcement that Waltraud Meier would sing her first Met Isolde prompted me to go back for a second very satisfying performance - with thanks to Dmitry for getting the tickets and also for standing thru it with me.
Now I feel confident I will always be prepared to see TRISTAN whenever it is offered; I hope it won't be long before the Met performs it again.
Above: Germaine Lubin, one of history's great Isoldes and one of opera's most tragically ill-fated singers. It is her recording of the Liebestod - in French - that I want played at my funeral.
It was not Germaine Lubin's fault that Adolf Hitler had become infatuated with her; but her activities during the German occupation of Paris put her under suspicion of collaboration with the Nazis, and after the Liberation in 1944 she was arrested and imprisoned. At her trial in 1946, she was acquitted of the accusations after a number of testimonials were produced from people she had helped during the war. Nevertheless she was sentenced to "dégradation nationale" for life (subsequently reduced to five years), confiscation of property, and "interdiction de séjour" (a form of exile). She found refuge with friends in Italy.
For her part, Lubin denied all ties to Nazi Germany, and grew deeply bitter over her treatment at the hands of the French government. She once said:
"I have suffered an enormous injustice. They curtailed my career by ten years — my own people! The fact is that I knew some of the Germans when they came to Paris during the occupation. This gave my enemies the chance to satisfy their envy … If I saw the Germans in Paris —and they had been more than kind to me— it was to save my compatriots. It was my way of serving my country at that particular moment. Nobody knows how many prisoners I had released … When I spent three years in prison, they confiscated my château at Tours and my possessions. Did anyone bother to ask me why I did not accept Winifred Wagner’s invitations to sing in Germany during the occupation? But my trial was a complete vindication: I was completely cleared. Yes, they gave back most of what they had taken …" {The scandal haunted her for the rest of her life, and in 1953 her son committed suicide.}
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