The metaphysics of conducting Wagner

Whenever a new production of a Wagner opera opens in Prague, it's an event. Despite the city's deep German heritage, in particular the founding of the New German Theater (now the State Opera) in 1888 as a showcase for the German repertoire, Wagner rarely makes an appearance on contemporary Prague stages.

So it's refreshing to see the State Opera opening a new Tristan und Isolde this week, especially with an experienced Wagner hand at the podium: British conductor Jan Latham-Koenig. An accomplished pianist and veteran of opera stages around the world, he has conducted everything from Macbeth to Peter Grimes, but holds Tristan in special regard.

"As a work of art, it is undoubtedly the most important opera of the 19th century," he said in an interview at the State Opera offices last week. "I would go so far as to say that you can divide the history of music into pre-Tristan and post-Tristan, so great is the influence of this opera."

Koenig looked like anything but a Wagner scholar, relaxed in a short-sleeve shirt and ranging easily across a wide array of subject matter, from British author W. Somerset Maugham to newspapers in Chile, where he is a frequent guest conductor. But when he focused on Wagner, his deep-set brown eyes lit up, and he spoke passionately of the many layers of meaning in Tristan.

The opera was written between 1857 and 1859, and reflects two of Wagner's preoccupations during that time. One was his passionate love for an unattainable married woman, Mathilde Wesendonck. The other was the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, in particular his idea that true love between a man and woman could only be realized in death.

"Tristan and Isolde's love transcends physical eroticism - it's more metaphysical," Koenig said. "In their love duet in the second act, they don't spend a lot of time admiring each other's physical characteristics. They philosophize about themselves and the idea of inhabiting each other's characters. They keep singing about 'the eternal' as if they know that only in death can they be properly united."

And that's one of the softest parts of the opera. Pulling together ideas of that order, along with a complex score, poses special challenges.

"The conductor has much to say in this opera," Koenig noted. "This is the first Wagner opera in which the orchestra has such a dominant role. Apart from the sheer complexity of the score, there are myriad technical demands."

Fortunately, Wagner was an accomplished conductor himself, as well as a control freak, so he left detailed instructions about how the music should be interpreted. "That makes my task a little bit easier," Koenig said.

Wagner was also remarkably flexible about tempo, typically the tightest restriction put on a piece of classical music. "Wagner wanted to emphasize emotional depth and the meaning of musical lines," Koenig explained. "If that meant waiting at the end of a vocal line, or pulling around the tempo, that was fine."

But one need not be a classical music aficionado to enjoy Tristan, an archetypal love story with a score so powerful that, in his notes for the State Opera production, Koenig writes, "The harmonic complexity and sheer range of orchestral color create a tension in this music that ensures that those who attend a performance leave the theater afterwards in a catatonic state."

Asked to elaborate on what seemed to be a bit of hyperbole, Koenig didn't back off from his statement at all.

"The emotional journey that the spectator takes is of such spiritual and erotic intensity that, when the apotheosis comes at the end of the opera, you can't just leave the theater and take a bus home, like you would from a film or sporting event," Koenig said. "You are changed in the way you see the world. And you begin to understand yourself better."

The first house to attempt a production of Tristan, the Vienna Court Opera, held more than 50 rehearsals before declaring the work unperformable and giving up. That won't happen at the State Opera, where the orchestra has been putting in extra rehearsal time, according to Koenig, and he expects good results.

"I hope this production is going to be something very special for everybody who sees it," he said.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at
fkuznik@praguepost.com