Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hoftheater und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting. Wagner referred to the work not as an opera, but called it "eine Handlung".
The Makropulos Affair is a Czech opera in 3 acts, with music and libretto by Leoš Janáček. Janáček based his opera on the play Věc Makropulos by Karel Čapek. Composed between 1923 and 1925, The Makropulos Affair was his penultimate opera and, like much of his later work, was inspired by his infatuation with Kamila Stösslová, a married woman much younger than himself.
Iseult, alternatively Isolde and other spellings, is the name of several characters in the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The most prominent is Iseult of Ireland, the wife of Mark of Cornwall and the lover of Tristan. Her mother, the queen of Ireland, is also named Iseult. The third is Iseult of the White Hands, the daughter of Hoel of Brittany and the sister of Kahedin.
Jonathan Stewart Vickers,, known professionally as Jon Vickers, was a Canadian heldentenor.
Patrice Chéreau was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his films La Reine Margot and Intimacy, and for his staging of the Jahrhundertring, the centenary Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. Winner of almost twenty movie awards, including the Cannes Jury Prize and the Golden Berlin Bear, Chéreau served as president of the jury at the 2003 Cannes festival.
Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91, is the common name of a set of five songs for female voice and piano by Richard Wagner, Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme. He set five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck while he was working on his opera Tristan und Isolde. The songs, together with the Siegfried Idyll, are the two non-operatic works by Wagner most regularly performed.
Max Lorenz was a German heldentenor famous for Wagnerian roles.
Deborah Polaski is an American opera and concert singer (soprano). She has specialized in dramatic soprano roles and also sings mezzo-soprano roles occasionally.
Nina Maria Stemme is a Swedish dramatic soprano opera singer.
Jane Henschel is an American operatic mezzo soprano. Henschel, who was born in Wisconsin, studied at the University of Southern California, and then pursued further studies in Germany, where she has made her home. Her numerous opera appearances include Baba the Turk in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake’s Progress with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, and the Salzburg festival; Brangäne in Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Paris Opéra and the Los Angeles Opera; the Principessa in Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica with conductor Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Blanche de la Force in Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites in Amsterdam; Kostelnicka Buryjovka in Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa under Seiji Ozawa in Japan; and the Kabanicka in Janáček’s Katya Kabanova at the Salzburg Festival among others.
Thor Steingraber is an American opera and theater director, and arts leader/manager.
Naděžda Kniplová was a Czech operatic soprano who had an active international career from the 1950s through the 1980s. Kniplová possessed a large voice with a sonorous, metallic, dark timbre that was particularly well suited to the dramatic soprano repertoire. While she was most admired in Czech operas and as Wagnerian heroines, she sang a wide repertoire that also encompassed Italian, Russian, and Hungarian language roles. A fine actress, her performances were praised for their intensity and pathos. However, some critics commented on a certain lack of steadiness or purity in her singing. Her voice is preserved on a number of recordings made on the Supraphon and Decca labels.
Richard Lee Versalle was an American operatic tenor.
Dmitri Tcherniakov is a Russian theatre director, and winner of numerous national Golden Mask theatre awards, who works with many European opera houses.
Evelyn Herlitzius is a German opera singer, a dramatic soprano. She is known for performing major roles in works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, such as Brünnhilde, Isolde and Elektra, at the Semperoper, the Bayreuth Festival and leading European opera houses.
Ingrid Haubold is a German operatic soprano. After beginning her career in Munich and continuing with German companies, she moved on to major international opera houses, appearing as Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1986, as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and in the title role of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Spas Wenkoff was a Bulgarian-Austrian operatic tenor. He was known internationally for mastering the heldentenor roles by Wagner, such as Tristan and Tannhäuser. He appeared in his signature role Tristan first in 1975 at the Staatsoper Dresden, followed by the centenary Bayreuth Festival in 1976, and the Metropolitan Opera in 1981, among many others. He was a member of the Berlin State Opera from 1976 to 1984, and then appeared freelance at major opera houses. He was awarded the title Kammersänger in both Berlin and Vienna.
John Charles Pierce is an American operatic tenor and academic voice teacher. He made an international career based in Germany, and focused on Wagner roles such as Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Tristan.
Tristan and Isolde is the title of two oil paintings by the Spanish artist Rogelio de Egusquiza. Both works are based on the opera Tristan und Isolde by the German composer Richard Wagner, whom Egusquiza idolised. The first painting, subtitled Death and also known as La mort d'Isolde, was completed in 1910 and depicts Isolde's "Liebestod", as she collapses in death upon the lifeless body of Tristan. The second painting, subtitled Life, was completed two years later and depicts the lovers embracing in the night, a scene from the second act of Wagner's opera.
Ian Storey is an English tenor.
