A Tale of Love and Death – Deutsche Grammophon Presents Tristan & Isolde on Film from the 2024 Bayreuth Festival
“It is a Tristan well worthy of the Wagner shrine … The Bayreuth cast was peerless,
the orchestra shone in the theater’s acoustical magnificence” (Opera Today)
Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson makes his Bayreuth directorial debut
in a production conducted by Semyon Bychkov
Andreas Schager and Camilla Nylund star as Tristan and Isolde,
alongside Günther Groissböck, Christa Mayer and Olafur Sigurdarson
Deutsche Grammophon is to release the filmed version of last summer’s Bayreuth Festival production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Icelandic director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson made his Bayreuth debut with this enigmatic new staging, which was conducted by Semyon Bychkov. The title roles were played by Andreas Schager and Camilla Nylund, heading an excellent cast that also included Günther Groissböck (King Marke), Christa Mayer (Brangäne) and Olafur Sigurdarson (Kurwenal). The dark ambiguity of Arnarsson’s vision was heightened by the sets of Vytautas Narbutas, lighting designs of Sascha Zauner and costumes of Sibylle Wallum.
As part of DG’s global media partnership with Bayreuth, Tristan & Isolde, directed for film by Michael Beyer, will be released digitally and on Blu-ray (2 discs) on 4 July 2025. Three weeks later, on 25 July, this year’s new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg will be livestreamed on STAGE+, home to a wealth of Bayreuth Festival content.
Wagner wrote his own libretto for Tristan und Isolde, based on a medieval legend. Before the opera’s action opens, the Cornish knight Tristan has killed Morold, who was betrothed to the Irish princess Isolde. Wounded in their fight, Tristan travelled to Ireland in search of Isolde, known for her powers of healing. Despite realising who he was, she found herself unable to exact revenge, and instead nursed him back to health – in this first encounter, says dramaturg Andri Hardmeier, they have a unique experience, “the moment of recognising each other”. Tristan is later driven by duty to return to Ireland and claim Isolde as a bride for his uncle, King Marke and, as the curtain rises, they are sailing across the sea to Cornwall.
In the original version, Isolde intends to kill Tristan and then herself during the voyage with poison, but her maid, Brangäne, replaces this with a love potion. Here, there is no substitution and the flask of poison is cast aside, unopened. “Since the two of them have already fallen in love, I was never able to believe in the necessity of the love potion,” explains Arnarsson. “At the point where Tristan decides to drink the atoning poison, he has shown Isolde that he is prepared to give everything.” Act Two is an extended love scene culminating in the king’s discovery of the lovers. Now Tristan does drink the poison, leaving enough for Isolde to join him in death at the end of Act Three.
Andreas Schager was hailed by the Financial Times as “an unrivalled Tristan in almost every way, strong, full in voice and seething with intensity in his suffering”, and The New York Times praised Camilla Nylund for her sensitive interpretation as Isolde: “Her climactic ‘Mild und leise’, better known as the ‘Liebestod’, was both elegant and euphoric.” German journal nmz called Christa Mayer’s Brangäne simply “exemplary”, while MUSIK HEUTE noted Olafur Sigurdarson’s “enormous stage presence” and summed up Günther Groissbock’s King Marke as “perfect casting”.
As always, the Chor and Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele gave exceptional performances. “There was orchestral luxury down in the pit,” wrote the Financial Times, “where Semyon Bychkov conducts a slow and spacious performance with the music sinking into a velvety cushion of rich sonorities … his slow-burn Wagner pays off and was wonderfully well played.” Echoing this praise, The New York Times observed how the conductor “[relished] key moments to guide the audience’s emotions as commandingly as Wagner intended. At times, the passion was tidal; at others, teeming with anticipation.”
Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson, Semyon Bychkov and the cast principals return to Bayreuth for a revival of Tristan und Isolde this summer. The Festival opens on 25 July with a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed by Matthias Davids – making his Bayreuth debut – and conducted by Daniele Gatti. This year’s programme also features Jay Scheib’s Parsifal, Valentin Schwarz’s Ring cycle and Yuval Sharon’s Lohengrin.
Bayreuth Festival 2025
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 25 July (livestreamed on STAGE+), 2, 5, 11, 14, 19, 22 August
Parsifal 30 July, 8, 17, 24, 26 August
Das Rheingold 26 July, 15 August
Die Walküre 27 July, 16 August
Siegfried 29 July, 18 August
Götterdämmerung 31 July, 20 August
Tristan und Isolde 3, 10, 13, 23, 25 August
Lohengrin 1, 4, 6, 9 August
Tristan & Isolde will be released digitally and on Blu-ray on 4 July 2025
