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A Generous Gift of Profound Feeling and Pure Beauty Philadelphia
Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
06/01/2025 - & June 8, 2025
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Stuart Skelton (Tristan), Tareq Nazmi (King Marke), Nina Stemme (Isolde), Brian Mulligan (Kurwenal), Freddie Ballentine (Melot), Karen Cargill (Brangäne), Jonghyun Park (A Sailor’s Voice, A Shepherd), Nathan Schludecker (A Steersman)
Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, Donald Palumbo (director), Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet‑Séguin (conductor)
S. Skelton, N. Stemme, K. Cargill (© Linda Holt)
This is Yannick Nézet‑Séguin’s year for Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. This month, the indefatigable conductor and artistic director, who commutes between the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, is leading two performances of the complete concert version in the City of Brotherly Love. The performances feature the warmth and power of the Philadelphia Orchestra (some 100 musicians), 40 men’s choristers from the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir (Donald Palumbo, director) and a spectacular cast of singers led by Nina Stemme.
Leaping ahead to next season at the Met, Nézet‑Séguin will conduct a new production of a fully staged version in March and April of 2026, at that time with Lise Davidsen as Isolde.
The Philadelphia event represents Yannick’s first time conducting this opera in its complete form, and the last time that soprano Nina Stemme—one of the great Wagnerian sopranos of the past half century—will sing the part of Isolde in the uncut edition.
One of those Philadelphia performances is already past (June 1) and the subject of this review. Concert versions of operas can be dreary affairs if the lead singers are huddled around the conductor, without significant movement or expression, and uninspired by the lack of staging, costumes, and colorful props. This is not the case with this production, permeated with a depth and warmth that is all‑enveloping.
The absence of scenery became an asset rather than a liability, as the clutch of lead singers was poised on scaffolding above the orchestra, allowing audience members to see and hear the vocalists completely. The scaffold provided a kind of walkway for characters to change position, to advance or recede as suggested by the music, to sit until their moment in the sun arrived. Here, the music came alive in a most vivid fashion, for there were no distractions to stand between audience and performers, but rather a direct encounter of singing and orchestral richness.
And what music it is. Yannick is sometimes accused of being too flamboyant or excessive in his conducting style, but this is Wagner, it cries out to be emotionally riveting, even taxing. Wagner’s music—and this is especially true of this particular music drama—is not something to be passively listened to, the way we might hear the ocean while lying on a beach. Instead, it demands advance preparation, participation and responsiveness, a union of the listener with some greater truth. In a word, it requires that the listener put in the work to complete an aesthetic experience.
In this production, the conductor maintains an energizing presence throughout three acts which, including two intermissions, come close to five hours of concentration, absorption, and (for many) pure rapture. The Philadelphia Orchestra surely has never sounded better, meeting and exceeding its own high standards through what must be an unusually long and demanding performative process.
But we come for the singing, and it was extraordinary. Stemme was a magnificent focus point, the polestar of this medieval tale of revenge and romantic love. She is leaving this role at the height of her powers, which include a tessitura that reaches deep, almost into the realm of the contralto. While she did overshadow her on‑stage partner, Stuart Skelton, in Act II, he rebounded in Act III, brilliant as the conflicted Tristan, his tenor voice clear and resilient. Karen Cargill as Isolde’s servant, Brangäne, gave a rich, evocative performance, adding another level to the meaning of love that is explored in this dramatic work.
So many wonderful moments adorn this production, including the evocative Shepherd’s Tune played with fluidity and ambiguity on the English horn by Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia. Truly, in these short measures, Wagner has created a miniature world of sound and mystery, and Masoudnia transformed this melody into a cry of the heart.
Hearing the Liebestod as sung by Stemme and Skelton, and later by Stemme alone, is an experience I will not soon forget. Hearty thanks to all involved for this generous gift of profound feeling and pure beauty.
Linda Holt
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