A Half-Century of Richard Wagner’s ‘Tristan And Isolde’ on Parisian Opera Stages (1899–1949)

Michał Piotr Mrozowicki

Abstract

The paper describes the history of the Parisian performances of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde focusing on these of the three periods: the Belle Epoque, the interwar period and the nineteen fourties. The author reminds the casts and the press reviews of the main spectacles of this musical drama. Tristan’s premiere at the Paris Opera took place on December 14th, 1904 conducted by Paul Taffanel. Earlier, this work had been executed in French, not only abroad – in Brussels and Monte Carlo, at the opera theatres in French provinces, but also in Parisian theatres, Nouveau-Théâtre (in 1899) and Théâtre du Château-d’Eau (in 1902) – due to private initiatives of Charles Lamoureux, Willy Schütz and Alfred Cortot. During the interwar period, Tristan was staged in Paris – in nineteen twentieth – by Italian and Dutch artists (under Tullio Serafin and Albert Van Raalte) and by the second Parisian opera theatre – the Opéra-Comique (under Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht first, and under Albert Wolff next). After the reappearance of Tristan and Isolde in the Paris Opera’s repertoire in 1930 an unusual rivalry of the two Parisian opera theatres playing this drama in the same time took place. The remarkable performances of Tristan and Isolde – mentioned in the paper – were given in Paris by German (or Austrian) artists conducted by Franz Schalk, Karl Elmendorff, Leo Blech, Franz von Hoesslin and of course by Wilhelm Furtwängler in nineteen thirties. Almost 90 years after so called „Anglo-American Season” at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Paris Opera is announcing seven performances of the real Anglo-American Tristan to take place in January and February 2023, with the American and British artists in the principal roles.