If you didn't happen to be in Italy for the evening-after broadcast of the Daniel Barenboim Tristan and Isolde at La Scala in Milan, here's Waltraud Meier's stellar Liebestod, to give you an idea of what was up.
You have to think that this production is a prime candidate for a future Great Performances installment, but for now, here's a direct link to it on You Tube, where, if you're patient, you should be able to listen to the entire opera by piecing together all of the eight to ten minute fragments. Meier is excellent, Tristan Ian Storey struggles a bit, Lyric alumni Matti Salminen is still hanging in there with a fraying around the edges but powerful King Marke, and Gerd Grochowski's warmly sung Kurwenal markes him as someone to watch . Barenboim gets beautiful playing from his pit band, and sustains the through line supporting the Wagnerian spell so strongly that the conductor can be seen instinctively flinching after applause intrudes on the silence after the opera's final measures.
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Thank you :-- P
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