From the frothy glee of Donizetti to the dark rich resonance of Wagner.  Get your beard out, it’s time for Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Opera House.

Isolde is on her way to England, Cornwall to be precise, on a boat captained by Tristan, who killed her fiancé in battle, and is now merrily shipping her off to be married to his good friend and uncle, King Marke.

The opera starts with a plaintive song about a wild Irish maid, which, Isolde is convinced is a cheap dig at her – rather beautifully sung below, no video I’m afraid!

She get’s pretty angry and sings some rather wild notes of upset while wishing the whole boat would just sink.  Her handmaiden (need a few of these in Wagner), Brangäne, is on hand (see what I did there) to try and cheer her up a bit.  Isolde’s not much in the mood for that though, she’d rather get on with poisoning Tristan, so she commands Brangäne to go and get him.

Tristan, unsurprisingly, is less than keen for a quick chat with crazy Isolde and tells Brangäne as much. 

Brangäne explains that Tristan isn’t coming out to play and so Isolde, now really quite irate, tells a tale of how, during the fighting, she came across a dying stranger on a barge who told her his name was Tantris. She used her healing powers on him, before realising he was actually Tristan, murderer of her lovely man.  She was about to undo her good works with a big old sword when their eyes met and she couldn’t kill Tristan after all.  Tristan promised to leave and never come back as a sort of thank you for the life saving/sparing.

This is most of that… a bit long but very beautiful, again no video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ83AyKiQ98

This is why she Isolde so monumentally miffed. Not only did he come back, he decided to marry her off to his overseas mate.  Moreover, this guy who owes her his life won’t even come for a catch up. Terrible manners…besides, she really wants to poison him. Brangäne is a bit disturbed by that idea, but doesn’t say much…well, not too much.

In comes Kurwenal, one of Tristan’s men, to announce that they are nearly there. Isolde swears that she will not appear before her new husband-to-be unless Tristan comes over right now and they have a drink.  Soon Tristan shows up.  Isolde tells him he’s been very naughty and must drink atonement to her.  He knows she is probably trying to kill him, so offers her his sword.  She’d rather not go down that route again, it didn’t work first time, no, no, they really must have a drink.  Deciding there’s not much he can do Tristan drinks the potion and Isolde takes half for herself…

Pretty short opera if Isolde had got her way, problem is, Brangäne has been fooling around with the various bottles and has substituted poison for love potion.  So now Tristan and Isolde are wildly, madly, passionately in love with one another.

Here’s from the moment they drink the potion until the end of the act…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xb-FajyCSkOopsie!